It would be foolish not to recognize the supremacy of the quarterback position in today’s game. It is virtually impossible to field a championship team, let alone a consistently competitive one, without “The Guy” under center.
Fans who think otherwise love to point to Nick Foles, who managed to be the exception to the rule coming off the bench for an injured Carson Wentz during the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl run in 2017. His career did not take off after that.
And Pittsburgh Steelers G Isaac Seumalo was on that roster. He remembers how it went in the locker room with teammates and Wentz and Foles afterward, with the possibility of creating division. “I’m sure it can”, he admitted to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, noting that his own experience was “a long time ago” now. But he still has strong opinions about the quarterback position, perhaps enlightened by that experience.
“The quarterback situation needs to be figured out”, he said on Monday, according to Dulac. “That’s how the NFL is. We need to have some solidarity there, one way or another, wherever it goes. You can’t win in the NFL without that”.
He didn’t specify what question prompted that answer, but it’s certainly no revelation. There is the old adage that if you think you have two quarterbacks, you really have none. That’s the situation the Steelers are now in with Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph, the latter a free agent going into 2024.
Pickett was the Steelers’ first-round draft pick in 2022, taking over as starter at halftime in the fourth game of his career. He did not fail to start a game since then other than due to injury until the season finale in 2023, when he was displaced by Rudolph.
A few games earlier, he did suffer an ankle injury that required surgery. He missed a few weeks as a result, but Rudolph had been playing well in his absence, winning two much-needed games, and the team elected to start the backup in the finale over the starter. Rudolph continued to start in the postseason loss. I’m not aware of anybody who argues that Pickett played better than Rudolph.
While Seumalo shared his general thoughts about the quarterback position and the importance of settling on an answer—whatever the answer may be—he also understands what lane he’s in. “My thing is to focus on things you can control — my play, my effort and my attitude, doing my job to the best of my ability”, he said. “Whatever else happens, happens with me doing as much as I can to make my play great”.
In his season-ending press conference, head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed that the team would go into the offseason with Pickett as the starter, but that he would be challenged. He also acknowledged it is the team’s hope that they can re-sign Rudolph to be a part of that challenge.
31 other teams will have an opportunity to sign him if they don’t get a deal done before the start of free agency in March. It is reasonable to assume that he would prefer to explore his options, though; any deal done before then would be quite a surprise.
