With the Pittsburgh Steelers clinging to the faintest of playoff hope going into Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, head coach Mike Tomlin turned to third-string QB Mason Rudolph after Mitch Trubisky failed to lead the Steelers to a win over the Indianapolis Colts the previous Saturday. Rudolph responded by throwing for just shy of 300 yards and two touchdowns without turning the ball over to help lead the Steelers to a 34-11 thrashing of their divisional rivals.
Of course Rudolph had the best game of the season for a Steelers quarterback on Christmas Eve. Cue the Rudolph saving Christmas puns. However, his performance caught the eye of both Rich Eisen and Chris Brockman for Tuesday’s episode of the Overreaction Monday Podcast. Brockman made the argument that “Rudolph saved Mike Tomlin’s job,” but Eisen is not convinced that team president Art Rooney II even entertained thoughts of firing Tomlin.
Instead, Eisen went a different way for his overreaction, focusing on the overall state of quarterback play in Pittsburgh.
“I would say the more appropriate overreaction topic would be Mason Rudolph should have been the starter all year,” Eisen said.
“Actually, that was the first draft,” Brockman said. “Then I was like, yeah, obviously we could say that they should never have went to Trubisky, they should have went right to Rudolph.”
“I went instead of [Kenny] Pickett, starting the season instead of Pickett,” Eisen interjected. “That’s the overreaction.”
One game is an incredibly small sample size, but it’s safe to say that Pickett did not turn in a performance at all this year like Rudolph did two days before Christmas. Pickett did have a better completion rate in the first meeting this season between the Steelers and Bengals, completing 72.7% of his passes. However, he failed to find the end zone in a tight 16-10 win for the Steelers.
Rudolph threw for two touchdowns, and while he only completed 63% of his passes, he averaged 2.3 yards per attempt more than Pickett did against the Bengals. Not bad for a player starting his first game since Week Nine of the 2021 season, a 16-16 tie against the Detroit Lions.
Perhaps looking at some career numbers may shed some light on whether Eisen’s overreaction holds any water or is simply just an off-the-cuff bit on a podcast the day after Christmas. Pickett does have a career completion percentage of 62.6%, a full percentage point higher than Rudolph’s 61.6%. Pickett also throws interceptions at a lower rate at 1.8% of the time versus Rudolph’s 2.7%.
However, Rudolph just edges out Pickett when it comes to yards per attempt, 6.4 to 6.3. Where Rudolph really pulls away from Pickett is with a 4.3% touchdown rate versus Pickett’s 1.8% and in quarterback rating, 83.6 to 78.8.
So should Rudolph have started Week One against the San Francisco 49ers? It would have been seen as completely insane after Pickett’s performance in preseason. Plus, the Steelers need to know what they have in their first-round pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.
However, Pickett has only thrown for two or more touchdowns once this season, and that was way back in Week Three against the Las Vegas Raiders. In fact, in games where Pickett has attempted at least 15 passes, he has more games where he hasn’t thrown a touchdown versus games with a passing touchdown.
Sure, you want your quarterback to protect the ball, and Pickett has only thrown interceptions in three games this season. He also has only fumbled twice. However, the offense is supposed to score points, and the Steelers reached at least 20 points five times this season where Pickett played more than half the game. In one of those games where he failed to throw a touchdown, he did run for a touchdown.
Rudolph has started one game this season, and it came in a do-or-die affair against a divisional rival. He delivered the best total performance by a Steelers quarterback this season. Maybe he deserves an extended look to finish the regular season, especially after the way he stepped in against the Bengals. Tomlin hasn’t ruled out turning back to Pickett if he’s healthy, but the Steelers are starting the week preparing as if Rudolph will start under center on the road against the Seattle Seahawks.
If Rudolph steps up and performs this well again, he may force Tomlin’s hand as the Steelers still can make the playoffs with a win against the Seahawks.
You can watch the rest of Eisen and Brockman’s overreactions to Week 16 of the NFL below.
