The only current Pittsburgh Steelers who were on the roster when they drafted QB Mason Rudolph in 2018 are OT Chukwuma Okorafor, OLB T.J. Watt, K Chris Boswell, and DL Cameron Heyward. And that’s not even technically true—Okorafor was drafted later in the same round in the same draft. But it’s close enough, and he’s the only offensive player on the list.
Outside of the free agents that they have brought in, then, he has watched all of these guys grow up. From wide receivers Diontae Johnson and George Pickens to running backs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, from tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington to lineman Dan Moore Jr. and H-back Connor Heyward, he has always been there for them.
But many of those who were around when he got here have been there for him since his recent ascent into the starting lineup. He was asked yesterday while speaking to reporters if former teammates had reached out to him to congratulate him or wish him luck — he said there had been a few — and then was asked if any stood out.
“Randy Fichtner, I think of him. I came in with him. He was both my QB coach and my coordinator. You never forget your first coach, I guess, in the NFL”, he said, via the team’s website. “And then that group of grizzly, veteran o-linemen that I enjoyed playing with so much. The [Maurkice] Pouncey, Ramon Foster, [David] DeCastro, [Alejandro] Villanueva group, they’re all still close friends”.
The Steelers had a well-established, veteran offensive line by the time Rudolph got here, which was quickly fading. None were around longer than Pouncey and Foster, coming to the team in 2010 and 2009, respectively, the former via the first round.
Pouncey shouted Rudolph out following his first win this season against the Cincinnati Bengals, sharing a photograph of Pouncey with Rudolph under center, congratulating him and saying, “Winner WIN”. I’m sure he wasn’t the only former teammate to publicly support him, but I’m neither an Internet sleuth nor an expert on player social media.
Of course, I imagine some focus will be paid to the names that he didn’t mention, even though by no means was Rudolph attempting to be all-inclusive. The big name is QB Ben Roethlisberger, the relationship between the two of them having not always been the greatest imaginable.
Recently, Rudolph suggested that the current quarterback room with Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky is more forthcoming than those in the past—and he’d never been in a quarterback room before them without Roethlisberger. For his part, Roethlisberger indicates that he stepped back when Rudolph indicated to him that he didn’t want any more help.
Fortunately, they haven’t been in the same room together in years, as far as I know, and unless Roethlisberger gets him on his Footbahlin podcast, I don’t see that happening any time soon, so we probably don’t have to worry about what they may or may not think of each other. It’s clear that Rudolph still has the support of many of his most established former teammates—and Randy Fichtner, for however far that might take you.
