The Pittsburgh Steelers re-signed quarterback Mason Rudolph to a one-year deal on Wednesday and while the contract has yet to hit the NFLPA site, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has now passed along the numbers he has on the former third-round draft pick out of Oklahoma State.
According to Dulac, Rudolph’s one-year contract totals out at $1.08 million, the minimum for a player with his credited seasons. That means Rudolph’s deal can qualify as a veteran benefit deal, which comes with a reduced salary cap charge of $940,000. That cap charge won’t even impact the Steelers’ current Rule of 51, which means zero available salary cap space was used to re-sign him.
Rudolph became an unrestricted free agent on March 15 and while he recently claimed he had interest from other teams, any at all he may have had probably didn’t offer him more than $1.08 million. It doesn’t get any cheaper than that. Personally, I thought that Rudolph would have at least received a $152,500 signing bonus to return to the Steelers but if Dulac’s reporting is correct, he obviously didn’t get that.
Rudolph failed to play a snap in 2022 and he was only active for one game. He made $3 million in 2022 for his efforts. For his NFL career to date, Rudolph, who entered the NFL with the Steelers in 2018, has completed 236 of his 384 total passes for 2,366 yards with 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He’s started 10 games and played in 17. His record as a starter is 5-4-1.
With Rudolph now back in the fold, he’s expected to be the Steelers third-string quarterback again in 2023. His re-signing came one day before the Steelers signed veteran quarterback to a two-year contract extension that included $8 million guaranteed.
The Rudolph contract should hit the NFLPA site next week. When it does, I’ll double check that it shows $1.08 million, which it should.
