Mason Rudolph has earned the starting quarterback job in Pittsburgh after back-to-back wins in which the offense scored at least 30 points. They had failed to reach the 30-point mark all season long, so head coach Mike Tomlin made the uncomfortable decision to bench former first-round pick Kenny Pickett.
NBC Sports’ Peter King, a longtime NFL insider, joined The Cook & Joe Show on 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday morning and was asked about what the future holds for Rudolph and the potential market there could be for him in free agency.
“A month ago or so, I might have said Josh Dobbs has made himself a lot of money and I think he’s got a decent chance to be a starter for somebody next year,” King said. “But we’ve all seen in the last few weeks what happened to Josh Dobbs. Played poorly after playing great for a while, then his star fell, and now basically I don’t know what he even is in Minnesota. Number three?”
This is an interesting point to consider. Dobbs came off the bench for the Minnesota Vikings just days after being traded to the team and won two games for them. In those games he looked pretty good with 43 completions on 64 attempts for 426 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, 110 rushing yards, and two rushing touchdowns. He then struggled mightily with four interceptions and three fumbles as the Vikings lost their next two games. They gave him another start the following week against the Las Vegas Raiders, but the offense put up zero points and they benched Dobbs late in the game.
“I don’t mean to say Mason Rudolph is Josh Dobbs,” King said. “But honestly, I don’t think two games, and honestly who knows? Maybe he plays great again this week, so you scratch your head a little bit more. It’s hard for two or three games to convince me that Mason Rudolph you should go into next year having these high hopes and saying, ‘Well, hope he beats out Pickett.’ I just don’t know how anybody can know that he’s a long-term guy. He just hasn’t shown it except for eight quarters.”
It is important to remember that Rudolph has been with the Steelers since 2018. They know who he is and what he can do, yet they still chose to play Mitch Trubisky over him. Also, in free agency last March, no other team brought him in. He came back to Pittsburgh on a one-year deal in May, almost two full months after free agency started.
All the Steelers can do is continue working with the data points they have, and a win in Baltimore followed by a playoff berth and a playoff start would be an important set of data to examine. For now, they have found a spark and need to determine if it is something more than that.
Then there is the added hurdle of actually being able to negotiate a new contract with him if he does play well. There are NFL teams that go into the offseason every year desperate for a quarterback, so a late Rudolph push to end the season could drum up some interest. All it takes is one team to make an offer to drive up his value and possibly price him out of Pittsburgh, especially if the Steelers view him as a long-term backup.
