When the Pittsburgh Steelers brought QB Russell Wilson in for a visit last Friday, the door on Mason Rudolph’s return may not have fully closed. When Wilson announced that he would be signing with the Steelers, that door slammed shut. The Steelers may have been open to Rudoph returning, but he evidently pulled the door shut tight behind him.
Former Steelers DL Chris Hoke joined the Joe Starkey Show on 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday to talk about the state of the Steelers. There was no surprise that Wilson and the quarterback situation was a major topic. However, Hoke’s feelings might be a bit of a surprise when it comes to Rudolph.
“Mason just got the raw end of the stick,” Hoke said. “He came in, what, the last four… games of the year and played well. Six touchdowns, five touchdowns and an interception, excuse me. Just wasn’t really given a real opportunity. It just ended a career that I think could have been much different if he had an opportunity to go out and play.”
What could have been for Rudolph in Pittsburgh? Rudolph was the team’s third-round selection in the 2018 NFL Draft but only appeared in 21 career games with a meager seven starts. His quote-unquote best opportunity came in 2019, the season after he was drafted.
Starting QB Ben Roethlisberger only played in two games before suffering a season-ending elbow injury. Rudolph and Duck Hodges split time in relief with Rudolph playing in 10 games with eight starts. Despite the swapping, Rudolph threw for 13 touchdowns in those 10 games while throwing nine interceptions.
Rudolph would never start more than one game in a season before the end of the 2023 season. If Rudolph never suits up for the Steelers again, he will have played in 21 games for them with 13 starts. He has a career completion percentage of 63.5 percent and has thrown for 3,085 yards and 19 touchdowns versus 11 interceptions.
Rudolph was also instrumental in the Steelers making the playoffs in 2023. They were 7-7, Kenny Pickett was hurt, and Mitch Trubisky had failed spectacularly against the Indianapolis Colts to put the Steelers at .500 with their season circling the drain. In went Rudolph, who had been the third-string quarterback for the season.
In Rudolph’s first start, Week 15 against the Cincinnati Bengals, he threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns while completing almost 63 percent of his passes. He played turnover-free football against the Bengals and over the following two weeks as well en route to three straight wins. That put the Steelers in position to take advantage of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ late-season collapse and secure the seventh seed in the AFC playoffs.
There was an expectation that Rudolph would return to Pittsburgh and be given a shot at starting in 2024. Evidently, despite the Steelers expressing their interest in his return, that is not to be.
Some people have pointed to how the Steelers handled the end of Roethlisberger’s career as one of the biggest reasons why the team is in quarterback purgatory. There was no clear plan of succession after Roethlisberger.
It seems like Hoke thinks that the Steelers could have done a better job with Rudolph. Perhaps if they simply stuck by Rudolph throughout the 2019 season and rode the ups and downs, the Steelers’ trajectory could have been different.
We will never know. Hoke seems confident Rudolph’s career would be very different, though. If that were true, then things would be very different for the Steelers.
