The Pittsburgh Steelers’ most notable unrestricted free agent this offseason is QB Mason Rudolph. It’s not even a particularly close competition, and frankly, it also came out of nowhere. The sixth-year veteran played some of the best football of his career in the final four games of the 2023 season. Now he is set to hit the open market in the best standing he has had since he was drafted.
Player: Mason Rudolph
Position: Quarterback
Experience: 6 Years
Free Agent Status: Unrestricted
2023 Salary Cap Hit: $940,000 (Veteran Salary Benefit Contract with reduced cap hit from $1,080,000)
2023 Season Breakdown:
Mason Rudolph came out at the bottom of a quarterback competition in 2022. Whether you believe it was genuine or not, the fact remains that he backed up the backup. That circumstance persisted into 2023 until fate intervened.
An ankle injury knocked starting QB Kenny Pickett out for multiple games. His backup, Mitch Trubisky, struggled enough through two-plus games filling in that the Steelers benched him. And Rudolph finally had his opportunity to play, for the first time in two years.
The Steelers scored a season-high 34 points in his first start. Rudolph struck twice, throwing for 290 yards and two touchdowns. Both scores came on explosive plays, one on a deep pass, both to WR George Pickens. Suddenly the offense had life.
The next week, he threw for 274 yards, completing 75 percent of his passes. The offense moved consistently, and while he didn’t throw touchdowns, the run game took care of the scoring as the Steelers put up 30 points.
It was much tougher sledding in inclement weather against the Baltimore Ravens in the finale. Even as they rested starters, the Ravens defense gave Pittsburgh’s offensive line fits. Rudolph went down numerous times and fumbled three times. But he persevered and ultimately hit WR Diontae Johnson for the game-winning score.
Head coach Mike Tomlin opted to continue riding the hot hand at quarterback, Pickett already deemed healthy enough to play at this point. Rudolph started the Wild Card game against the Buffalo Bills. Unfortunately, the offense didn’t do too much out of the gate.
It was 14-0 by the time it showed signed of life. And Rudolph threw an interception in the end zone that would have cut the deficit in half. The Bills took advantage of the turnover and went up 21-0. To his credit, he continued to rally and ultimately made it a 24-17 game, but the defense couldn’t hold. Any chance of a comeback vanished. And Rudolph’s future officially began, unsure what comes next.
Free Agency Outlook:
Rudolph has only been an unrestricted free agent once before, a year ago. At that point, he had not played a down in over a year. The Steelers demoted him to third string after he had served as Ben Roethlisberger’s backup. It’s no surprise that he did not sign with a team before the 2023 NFL Draft.
Things look much different now, however. He put good throws on tape. He won games. After re-signing, he did say that he “had opportunities” elsewhere, but how serious were they? Surely not as serious as the teams that will express interest this offseason.
The question, of course, is his market value. And the heart of that question is whether he is a starter or not. It is unlikely any team will view him as an unchallenged starter—including the Steelers. Surely some teams will see what he did in 2023, though, and consider rolling the dice.
He will make more than the veteran minimum, there’s no doubt about that. How much more? It’s hard to say. I could see anywhere within a wide range of values and lengths. A one-year, $6 million deal with $4 million in incentives? A three-year, $21 million contract? Maybe even a two-year deal totaling $6-8 million.
A lot of Steelers fans thought his market would be more robust last year. His most loyal supporters expected that he wanted to leave. If he did want to leave, then that just speaks to how poorly teams valued him. And while he now has recent tape — and wins — much of it doesn’t move the needle. He played competently to well, with a only a handful of bad plays. He showed he belongs in the NFL. But how much money will an owner throw at his four-game sample against mostly bad defenses or defenses resting starters?
