The Pittsburgh Steelers are asking Mason Rudolph to guide the team to a Christmas win. But this holiday season, someone has to play the Grinch. On the latest episode of The Bill Barnwell Show, analyst and ESPN writer Alaina Getzenberg panned the team’s decision to bench QB Mitch Trubisky for Rudolph for Saturday’s must-win game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I think this is a desperation move to come in and be like, ‘What if we changed quarterbacks?'” Getzenberg told Barnwell. “I think Mitch is a solid backup and that’s how he performed. I think it can get worse with Mason Rudolph. I think Mitch Trubisky is the better quarterback.”
After being benched during halftime of last year’s Week Four loss to the New York Jets, Trubisky had assumed the role of capable backup. The job description essentially being “come in and win us a game or two if the starter gets hurt.” But he’s failed in that mission, the Steelers losing to the New England Patriots at home before getting blown out by the Indianapolis Colts over the weekend, playing an uncompetitive second half of football in all three phases.
On paper, Trubisky is the more talented quarterback. The stronger arm, the additional mobility, just better all-around physical tools capable of making the occasional impressive throw, even showing that in Saturday’s loss. But he dies by the sword more often than he lives by it, too careless with the football leading to turnovers that Pittsburgh’s fragile state can’t afford. Of quarterbacks with at least 100 pass attempts this season, Trubisky’s 4.7 percent interception rate is second highest in the league, only trailing Las Vegas’ Jimmy Garoppolo, long benched by the team.
Comparatively, QB Kenny Pickett has the league’s second-lowest interception rate, 1.2 percent, only behind Houston’s C.J. Stroud. While Pickett has had his struggles and wasn’t making a ton of plays before spraining his ankle, he wasn’t losing the game either. For Pittsburgh’s offense, the bar has been set so low that not losing games is “winning football.”
But Getzenberg was adamant that turning to Rudolph will be a move the Steelers regret.
“It’s nuts to me because I think it can get worse,” she said. “I think the Steelers are in such a downfall…it sorta feels like the Steelers have forgotten they have seen Mason Rudolph play football.”
The team’s third-string quarterback the last two years, Rudolph has his own limitations. And he’s nothing more than a backup so ignored by the NFL in free agency that he returned to Pittsburgh on a one-year minimum deal to resume his role as clear No. 3. But on a three-game skid and showing little signs of life, the Steelers couldn’t keep rolling the same people out on the field.
“I think it’s such a Band-Aid to me that’s going to completely to fall off once the game starts,” Getzenberg said.
If Rudolph falters, the Steelers’ season will officially be over. And Pickett will likely return to play the final two games against Seattle and Baltimore, a chance to evaluate him with Eddie Faulkner/Mike Sullivan as the Steelers get set to answer big questions about their team this offseason, including at quarterback.
