Player: QB Mason Rudolph
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: With Russell Wilson basically saying he’s signing with the Steelers, Mason Rudolph likely leaves town. Presumably he wanted to last year but found no substantial alternatives. He should find at least one better spot for him in 2024 than a room with Wilson and Kenny Pickett.
Many assumed that Mason Rudolph played his last down in Pittsburgh once the 2022 season ended. Yet he re-signed with the team in May after remaining in the market for around two months. That proved to be a shrewd move, at least in the long run, with the way that things worked out in the end.
Though he entered the season as the third-string quarterback, fate conspired to grant him the final four games. He won the final three games of the regular season and then started in the playoffs, albeit in a loss.
Now, however, he doesn’t seem likely to return barring a dreadful market. I’m not writing a stock column just yet on Russell Wilson until he officially signs, but the reports are bad for Rudolph right now. Wilson himself essentially announced his plans to sign with the Steelers on social media, so where does Rudolph fit in?
Quite likely, he doesn’t. Are the Steelers going to have another three-way quarterback competition with Wilson and Kenny Pickett and Rudolph? I can hardly imagine they have any such intentions nor does Rudolph want to participate.
Surely he hopes to find an easier path to playing time than what the Steelers offer with Wilson. The Steelers talked all offseason about how they wanted to re-sign Rudolph, but Wilson’s availability changed things.
I don’t think he ever would have signed a new contract without at least testing the open market. He only has the ability to agree to one beginning today when the two-day legal tampering period starts at noon ET, so he’ll soon gain clarity on where he stands. I think that if even one team offers him a slightly better opportunity, he’ll flee from a team set to bring in a future Hall of Famer to “challenge” its former first-round draft pick. If he re-signs, he runs the very real risk of falling back to third on the depth chart. By then he’ll be checking to make sure his real estate license is up to date.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
