2023 was supposed to be the Year of the Deer, after 2022 failed to live up to similar expectations. The deer being Mason Rudolph, who expected to be ‘former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph’ by this time. Instead, he re-signed with the team on a cheap one-year deal.
“I hadn’t really thought about it”, he said at first about the possibility of ending up back in Pittsburgh, he told Chris Adamski recently for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I mean, I had thought about it, but I can’t say I was seriously considering it. As time went on, I was sitting there. I didn’t really want to continue to wait. It was a long wait already”.
Since re-signing, Rudolph’s messaging has seemingly been a bit mixed when discussing his potential prospects to land elsewhere. But I think we can safely surmise that there was nothing imminent if he ended up re-signing with the Steelers after the draft. Regardless of the circumstances, however, he is with the Steelers for another year, and that’s his focus now.
“I’m fired up to be back”, he said, though he no longer has his old locker room, and his nametag is in a bag somewhere in his house, is name now written on a piece of tape for now. “It’s a great group of guys. I had some opportunities, but felt like I didn’t want to let things drag out until training camp when I knew I was wanted here. I’m happy to be back in the 412”.
For his sake, I hope that’s true, though it’s hard not to get the impression that at first he was very much hoping to find a better opportunity elsewhere. Then again, who doesn’t want to find better opportunities? Better is better. And as of now coming back to Pittsburgh was the best situation for him.
The Steelers from the beginning have always expressed an interest in continuing to work with Rudolph, so that was never the issue. General manager Omar Khan said some time ago that they were keeping the door open for him.
Granted, at least according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, they were also pretty explicit about what his return trip would mean this time around. He was to be squarely in the number three role behind Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky, and the pecking order would be pretty much locked in. There would be no ‘open competition’.
The Steelers drafted Rudolph in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. They had a high opinion of him at the time, acknowledging that on their board they had him graded in the same group of quarterbacks who were taken on the first day of the draft. They went so far as to say that they viewed him as a potential heir apparent to Ben Roethlisberger.
Things didn’t quite turn out that way. The year Roethlisberger retired, the Steelers signed Trubisky in free agency and then drafted Pickett. While Rudolph got his share of reps in training camp and the preseason, he found himself demoted to third string after backing up the future Hall of Famer for most of his career.
Forced to take a step back, it would be understandable if Rudolph felt it was time for a change. The opportunity for such didn’t materialize the way he apparently hoped, but the fact that he is back in Pittsburgh at all does say something about how he really feels about the organization. He could have waited a lot longer if he was really so upset about how things went down. So I’m willing to take him at least partially on his word when he talks about his excitement to return to the city he’s played for the past five years.
