While Mason Rudolph reportedly hasn’t closed the door on returning to Pittsburgh, the rest of the NFL is looking to cut in. According to a late night tweet-port from NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, Rudolph has several teams interested in signing him to be their No. 2 quarterback.
It’s logical news following Rudolph’s impressive showing over the final three regular season games, leading Pittsburgh into the playoffs. Over that span, he completed 75 percent of his passes, threw three touchdowns, wasn’t intercepted, and twice led the Steelers’ offense to 30-plus points. His playoff performance on the road against Buffalo was shakier but he settled down after a rough first quarter to make the game competitive.
While the Steelers would likely want Rudolph back as a No. 3, it’s sensible one of the other 31 teams would view him as a No. 2. Russell Wilson’s agreement with the Steelers seemingly eliminated any chance of Rudolph returning, who would get more money and better opportunity than staying with Pittsburgh. Earlier Monday night, PFT’s Mike Florio floated the idea of Mason Rudolph returning to the Steelers though it made no guarantees about his future.
Drafted in the third round of the 2018 draft, Rudolph played significant snaps in 2019 following Ben Roethlisberger’s season-ending elbow injury. After seeing sparse action in 2020 and 2021, Rudolph didn’t take a snap in 2022 and didn’t see the field until late in 2023 following Kenny Pickett’s high ankle sprain and Mitch Trubisky’s disasterous play.
Now, he’s set to become a top backup somewhere, though Garafolo’s report doesn’t indicate any of the interested parties or Rudolph’s price tag. He would likely sign with a team who has a cemented starting quarterback. Perhaps a return to the south could be in play be it backing up Dak Prescott in Dallas (especially if Trey Lance were to be traded) or C.J. Stroud in Houston. Perhaps there will be an answer by the end of the week.
