The Green Packers may make it look easy, but in the NFL, there aren’t many things that are harder to do than drafting a franchise quarterback. Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers know this all too well, especially if they were around to witness the years after Terry Bradshaw retired. Until drafting Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers were in quarterback purgatory, rolling out numerous players who were, at best, fine, but not good enough to make the team a consistent Super Bowl contender. They’re in a similar spot now with Roethlisberger long gone, but not for lack of trying. Before Kenny Pickett was drafted in the first round, the Steelers may have thought Mason Rudolph was the heir apparent to Roethlisberger, at least according to one former general manager.
Randy Mueller was a longtime NFL executive, spending time as the general manager of the Saints and Dolphins. In 2017, during Rudolph’s last year at Oklahoma State, Mueller was working in the Chargers’ front office. On a recent episode of his podcast released by The Athletic called The Football GM, Mueller tells the story of when he went to watch Rudolph play against the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, where he sat beside former Steelers GM Kevin Colbert.
“To my left, the whole day, we had lunch together, and we’ve been buddies for years, was Kevin Colbert. That day, Mason Rudolph put on a show that I thought I was watching Warren Moon dropping bombs down smokestacks. He had 300 yards at halftime,” Mueller said. “This kid was incredible, and just in our discussions during the day, Kevin Colbert, GM of the Steelers, at the end of the day I remember getting on the airplane that night thinking, ‘I wonder if the Steelers will be on this guy?’ At the time, they were looking.”
Mueller’s assessment of Rudolph against Pitt is accurate. He finished that game with 497 passing yards and five touchdowns, with only one interception. Rudolph dominated that day, and based on what Mueller is implying, it was seeing that performance live that really put him on Colbert’s radar. The Steelers would go on to select Rudolph in the third round of the following draft, and he would stay in Pittsburgh until this offseason, where it seems things didn’t end great.
Rudolph wasn’t the franchise quarterback Colbert thought he was, but based on that performance, and really, Rudolph’s entire final collegiate season, it’s easy to understand why Colbert was enamored with him. The Steelers knew Roethlisberger didn’t have a ton of mileage left in 2018, and they tried to create a succession plan. It didn’t work out, but Rudolph did help save the Steelers’ season last year, so it wasn’t the worst pick Colbert ever made.
The Steelers and Colbert clearly fell in love with Rudolph that game — so much so that they also drafted James Washington, his top target from Oklahoma State, that same year in the second round. Despite trying to give Rudolph that extra comfort, the idea ultimately failed, and the Steelers are still looking for their next franchise quarterback. It seems Rudolph is happy with the way he played with the Steelers though, and it’s fair to say he wasn’t the worst quarterback during his stint with the team. He was an excellent college quarterback, and he was Warren Moon against Pitt. He just never developed into the player Colbert hoped he would become.
