The Pittsburgh Steelers largely emphasized ball security with QB Kenny Pickett in the starting lineup. It’s one of the reasons he ranked fifth-to-last in the NFL in deep passing attempts among 41 qualifying quarterbacks. Just 8.6 percent of his 363 pass attempts traveled 20 or more yards in the year.
While it led to an excellent turnover rate, it produced little in the way of splash plays, particularly after his two early deep passing touchdowns, to which defenses quickly adjusted. After Week Three, he completed just seven of 20 deep pass attempts for 247 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
The hope was that with backup Mitch Trubisky, you would at least get more splash. While he did attempt more deep passes—seventh-most in the league by percentage of attempts—the results weren’t there. He completed just four of 15 attempts for 101 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions.
Mason Rudolph, on the other hand, has offered the best of both worlds, of sorts. He has been more aggressive without turning the ball over and finding success doing it. He’s completed four of eight attempts for 181 yards and one touchdown and had thrown deep on nearly 15 percent of his passes—more than Trubisky. Not that head coach Mike Tomlin is surprised.
“I would imagine anybody that’s good at it, they don’t view it in that way, he told Bob Pompeani on the Mike Tomlin Show via the team’s YouTube channel when asked about what goes into a successful deep passer and rattling off a list of qualities. “It’s like breathing for them. I’d imagine Mason has been a good deep-ball thrower all his life”.
That’s certainly one of the qualities that they coveted in him when he came out in the draft. In his senior season, 18.4 percent of his pass attempts were deep balls. He went 42-for-90 for 1,712 yards with 17 touchdowns to three interceptions, which we broke down after he was drafted. His deep passing numbers throughout his college career were quite steady, in fact, with very similar stat lines in his sophomore and junior seasons.
“It’s arm talent. It’s the ability, distance, trajectory, a feel for receivers, rapport with receivers, the ability to look off and hold deep defenders, deep-half-field players, deep middle-of-the-field players”, Tomlin said about what makes a great deep passer.
For Rudolph, it’s always been about more than just having a big arm. And I’ve never found him to have a world-class arm in terms of power. But he’s always had an understanding of timing and touch. It doesn’t matter how far you can throw or with what velocity if you don’t know where to put it, how to put it, and when to throw it.
He hasn’t been hindered by his supporting cast. He had a second-round wide receiver throughout his college career to throw to James Washington, whom the Steelers selected before they drafted him. His latest deep-ball success has come targeting George Pickens, who has one of the more impressive highlight reels in the NFL over the past two seasons.
Rudolph’s threat as a deep-ball passer has helped provide more balance to the Steelers offense as well, as RB Najee Harris acknowledged. It’s forced defenses to account for it and play off, opening the run game. And when they play for the run, he’s able to attack over top, as he did at the end of last week’s game with a game-sealing deep completion to Pickens.
