Remember when former Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert made the extra effort to say that the team had QB Mason Rudolph graded within the same group of players at his position who were drafted in the first round that year after they drafted him in the third?
That illustrious quarterback draft class included Baker Mayfield going first overall to the Cleveland Browns, followed by Sam Darnold at three to the New York Jets, Josh Allen to the Buffalo Bills at seven, Josh Rosen to the Arizona Cardinals at 10, and then Lamar Jackson at 32 to the Baltimore Ravens. No other quarterback was drafted between Jackson at 32 and Rudolph at 76 in the third round.
Though he opened this season as a third-string quarterback, he will be starting his first postseason game today, against the most successful quarterback of that class, Allen of the Bills. Allen has won four postseason games over the past three years.
If Rudolph can pull out the win, then, well, he would have the second-most postseason wins in the draft class, tied with Jackson and Mayfield (who defeated the Steelers in 2020 as a member of the Browns). Mayfield will also play today as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hosting the Philadelphia Eagles, but that’s no easy assignment to get his second win.
Jackson, of course, will have a postseason game to play, but his Ravens earned a first-round bye, so he will have to wait another week. And if Rudolph and the Steelers do manage to beat Allen and the Bills, it would be Rudolph and Jackson facing off in Baltimore looking for their second all-time postseason win.
It should be stated that much is made of Jackson’s postseason record because there is already little else he hasn’t already done. He has already been the youngest and second-ever unanimous league MVP and is likely to win his second. He has led the league in touchdown passes. He has broken quarterback rushing records. He ranks behind only Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady in the modern era in winning percentage.
But he’s never played in a conference championship game. It hasn’t helped that he has been injured during the playoffs in the past two years. He did earn his first postseason victory the last time he was healthy in 2020, defeating the Tennessee Titans in the Wild Card Round before being held to three points by Allen and the Bills in the Divisional Round.
He is now 1-3 all-time in the postseason, the one thing his critics know they really have an argument against him to make. Having gone 13-4 this year (with a loss in the finale while starters were rested, including himself) and earning the top seed, the pressure is on him to finally begin fulfilling his destiny in his sixth NFL season.
So it would give Steelers fans great satisfaction if they could stroll into the Divisional Round boasting about how Mason Rudolph has as many wins in the postseason as does Lamar Jackson. In order to have that right, however, he will have to get through Allen first.
