The Pittsburgh Steelers won their Week 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals and put up their best offensive performance of the year in the process. QB Mason Rudolph started his first game since 2021, and just his second game since 2020. He threw for 290 yards on 17 completions with two touchdowns and a 124.0 passer rating. A majority of his yards came on a few explosive passing plays to WR George Pickens. On four passes to Pickens, Rudolph amassed 195 yards and two touchdowns.
NFL Total Access had former NFL QB David Carr on Wednesday morning, and he discussed how Rudolph may have been the missing link for the Steelers’ offense.
“When you look at it, what did they really need? They needed what Mason has always been good at—pushing the ball vertically down the field,” Carr said in an NFL Total Access episode posted on Spotify. “That was an element of their game that, you kind of look at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiving corps, and you’re like, why aren’t they pushing it vertically?”
The Steelers have only had 16 passing plays go for over 30 yards this season. Three of those occurred in the Steelers’ win over the Bengals. On all three of those plays, Rudolph connected with Pickens. It started early with an 86-yard catch-and-run by Pickens for a touchdown. He had a 44-yard pass to Pickens towards the end of the first half along the left sideline with a great effort to get both feet inbounds, and he capped it off with a 66-yard touchdown pass up the left sideline.
If you raise the threshold to passes of 40 or more yards, the team has only had seven such plays this season. Again, three of them occurred on Saturday with Rudolph at quarterback. For comparison, the explosive offense of the Miami Dolphins has 12 passing plays over 40 yards.
At least a few of the other 16 passes of 30 yards or more were back-shoulder throws to Pickens along the sideline with no room for yards after the catch. Rudolph was able to find Pickens and place the ball in a way that allowed for a bunch of YAC. This all culminated in the Steelers’ most points scored this season in the 34-11 win.
“Mike Sullivan, who I know previously,” Carr continued. “He likes to push the ball vertically. So I’m thinking, okay, [Mitch] Trubisky is more of an RPO guy, more of a run guy, so they insert Rudolph, and Mason can throw the ball down the field if he can do anything.”
For now, Rudolph is the starter for the Steelers’ Week 17 game against the Seattle Seahawks. Head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t rule out the possibility of Kenny Pickett’s return from injury, but he told the media on Tuesday that they are working under the same assumption as last week. Pickett’s injury might serve as a convenient excuse to stay with the hot hand in Rudolph. But if he performs well against the Seahawks, there will be little excuse moving into the final week of the season. The Steelers have a classic quarterback controversy brewing.
