Even as the Pittsburgh Steelers seemingly wait out Aaron Rodgers, Mike Florio thinks their next move could be rolling with the quarterbacks they do have on their roster. Meaning, step right up Mason Rudolph. One of only two quarterbacks under contract, Skylar Thompson the other, if the Steelers strike out on Rodgers, Rudolph – not Russell Wilson – could be their next move.
“I think we need to take Rudolph seriously as a potential Plan A,” Florio said Friday on Pro Football Talk to co-host Michael Holley. “I think Rudolph closes the door on Russell Wilson. I don’t think they ever wanted Russell Wilson back.”
Before free agency, the Steelers repeatedly stated they wanted to retain at least one of their 2024 quarterbacks. Now, it’s looking like the entire room will be turned over just as it was last offseason. Justin Fields signed with the New York Jets, Kyle Allen is now a backup in Detroit, and Wilson seems low on the team’s list of priorities. At best, he’s their fourth choice. At worst, he’s off the board entirely. Potential issues with the coaching staff, chiefly OC Arthur Smith, may be the reason why.
“When they said, ‘We want to bring back Russell Wilson or Justin Fields,’ I think it meant, ‘We want to bring back Justin Fields and we want to use the possibility of Wilson to squeeze Fields to take less,'” Florio said.
It’s a fair and agreeable view. The Steelers didn’t want to publicly throw Wilson under the bus by only stating they wanted to bring Fields back, a statement that would also hurt potential leverage. But if that was the plan, it failed. The Steelers offered a lesser contract to Fields than the Jets and Fields left, likely influenced by the team’s decision to replace him with Wilson midseason in 2024.
It’s a haphazard way to chart a quarterback course, flip-flopping between options with no clear vision, or at least a terrible execution of it. Of course, even Florio has gone back and forth, believing Jameis Winston was next man up if Rodgers couldn’t be had.
Other reporting indicates Wilson remains in the fold and nothing should be off the board until these quarterbacks put pen to paper. Clearly, Wilson wasn’t one of the Steelers’ top two choices. If he was, he’d have been re-signed days ago. Now, it’s worth wondering if Rodgers goes elsewhere, if it’s Rudolph while some other veteran not named Wilson will be added to create a true training camp battle.
