Based on the most realistic options, Willie Colon would enter 2024 with Mason Rudolph as the Pittsburgh Steelers starter. On Monday’s episode of The Carton Show, Colon was asked who he’d choose between Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, or the field.
“I’m going to go with Mason Rudolph, if I had to pick,” Colon said. “You talk about 8-4-1 as a starter. He won his last three regular-season games. You go back to the Buffalo game where he came and rallied in the second half. He’s been through a lot. Pickett needs more time to grow.”
Pittsburgh’s goal appears to be a training camp battle between Pickett and Rudolph. That would require two things. Re-signing Rudolph, a pending free agent who may choose to start over somewhere else. And an actual competition that gives Rudolph a legitimate chance to win the job. Not a repeat of 2022 when the Steelers framed it a competition but always planned on Mitch Trubisky winning the job, which he did.
Rudolph’s end-of-season performance is impossible to ignore. Providing the team’s best quarterback play since Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement, Rudolph did things Trubisky and Pickett struggled to do. Rudolph took care of the football, something Trubisky hasn’t proven capable of. Rudolph put points on the board, something Pickett hasn’t accomplished. And he led the team into the playoffs, bouncing back from a 7-7 mark where their playoff odds looked bleak.
But the Steelers haven’t given up on Pickett. Under new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, there’s no question the organization wants to give him a final chance to prove he can be the team’s franchise arm. And they won’t find that out by keeping him on the bench.
While there’s been plenty of chatter about adding a big-name from the outside, Willie Colon recognized that’s unlikely to occur.
“They’re not going to get a Kirk Cousins. They’re not going to get a Justin Fields,” he said. “It looks like they’re going to figure out between these two gentlemen. Maybe bring in one more person.”
If Rudolph walks, the team will sign a veteran equivalent. Given his connections to Smith, Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill is the most logical Plan B. Swinging for the fences with someone like Fields isn’t part of Pittsburgh’s “competition” plan. But Colon admitted that if in a vacuum, Fields is the better option than Rudolph or Pickett, even if he’s doubtful to ever make his way to Pittsburgh.
