The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need to be answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Will Mason Rudolph turn back into a pumpkin against the Seattle Seahawks?
Ah, Mason Rudolph. The greatest quarterback in franchise history if only he hadn’t been oppressed. The man who’s been done more wrong than an algebra quiz taken by a toddler. Forever the one that got away…unless…
Well, we may still find out what ought to come after the second ellipsis. The sixth-year veteran played a good game last week at quarterback against a questionable Cincinnati Bengals defense. He has another opportunity to start on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.
It would behoove him to have another good game, it goes without saying, lest he turn back into a pumpkin, as Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus predicts he will. He’s living an enchanted tree house life right now, and rightfully so, given the state of the Steelers’ quarterback situation, but boy, does it feel like our bar is low.
Yes, Mason Rudolph played the best game by a quarterback for the Steelers in years. But there may not be a team with a lower standard of play at the position during that time period. We are at the point at which competence appears transcendent.
And so the question of the day is a simple one: can he do it again, or will he look like the guy who’s been a third-string quarterback for half of his career? Can he look like a legitimate NFL-quality quarterback for two consecutive games? And what would it mean if he can?
Players do go on hot streaks that they are never able to repeat. In basketball terminology, I believe it’s referred to as Linsanity at this point, referring to former New York Knick Jeremy Lin, who had his 15 days or so of fame some years ago.
Was last game Rudolph’s Linsanity run, or has he actually taken his game to another level? Is this a consistently repeatable result, or have we just gotten ahead of ourselves without waiting for a more complete sample size on a guy who already had five years of NFL experience? Where’s Joshua Dobbs now? Where’s Tommy DeVito? Where’s any number of journeyman players who had a nice game or two before crashing back down to reality, or returning to their pumpkin patch? What does Rudolph have to trademark while he has the spotlight?
