As the Pittsburgh Steelers’ third-string quarterback, Mason Rudolph helps the defense by leading the scout team in practice. As the scout-team quarterback, Rudolph gets to play against his own teammates and see and read what they’re trying to do. With the Steelers having one of the more talented defenses in the league when healthy, Rudolph is getting his practice reps against a group that isn’t going to make his life easy. During his media session today, Rudolph talked about the benefits of leading the scout team and going up against Pittsburgh’s defense.
“It’s a great group to work against,” Rudolph said via Steelers.com. “We employ so much pre-snap disguise that it really makes you play every snap with a keen sense of awareness of where the safety’s moving, where’s Minkah Fitzpatrick. I think that prepares you a lot for other teams, other looks. When you get a team, Cincinnati was not one of these, they disguised very well, but when you get a team that’s maybe less, maybe more vanilla, you can kind of take a breath and say I’ve seen harder looks than this in practice.”
The Steelers’ defense does like to disguise various looks and coverages, so Rudolph needs to be aware of what they’re doing in order to try and make a play during his limited practice reps. Going up against All-Pro-caliber players in T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward and Fitzpatrick also surely helps Rudolph get ready to play high-level competition as not a lot of defenses have the star power that Pittsburgh’s unit does.
He specifically mentioned paying attention to where Fitzpatrick is rotating and where he’s going, which helps Rudolph identify and watch where other teams’ top options and ballhawks may be in certain situations. He was able to play turnover-free ball against the Bengals in his first start in Week 16, and if he continues to limit turnovers, he’s going to be alright.
If Rudolph earns another start, it will be against a Seahawks defense that ranks 19th against the pass, and features a lot of talented corners, namely rookie Devon Witherspoon. It won’t be an easy matchup, but Rudolph’s work on the scout team has him ready to take on all comers in Seattle. It’s a group that also has Tariq Woolen and Jamal Adams in the secondary (although Adams and Witherspoon have missed the past two games due to injury), so the Seahawks are going to look to prevent Rudolph from a repeat of his 290-yard performance against the Bengals.
It should be a good matchup, and it’s one that Pittsburgh needs to win. Hopefully, the Steelers’ defense will have the team’s quarterback ready enough to face a solid Seahawks defense.
