Steelers Mason Rudolph currently the worst graded starting quarterback

The Steelers’ offensive struggles may be stemming from the quarterback position. Here’s why Mason Rudolph is the lowest graded starting QB in the league.

There is no denying that the Pittsburgh Steelers are struggling on offense. While we had hoped to see drastic improvements in the second half of the season, no such progress has been made. In fact, Pittsburgh’s offense is struggling more now than ever, and they have scored just 8.5 offensive points per game over their last two contests.

There are a handful of factors we can point to for their decline in 2019. Obviously, future Hall of Fame quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, has been absent since Week 2 due to an elbow injury that required season-ending surgery, and Pittsburgh’s offensive line may be starting to feel the effects of losing offensive line coach, Mike Munchak.

It doesn’t help that their skill players have been banged up all year, with James Conner, JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington, and Diontae Johnson all missing time. On top of all of their shortcomings, I wouldn’t exactly call Randy Fichtner an offensive-minded genius.

But despite all of these factors, none has had more of an impact on an offense than the quarterback. Mason Rudolph looked promising in his first NFL action against the Seahawks but has failed to make much progress since then.

The Steelers offense continues to dip, and Rudolph is at the center of attention. According to Pro Football Focus, Mason Rudolph is the worst graded quarterback in the NFL this season among all current starters. He has earned an overall grade of just 51.3 on the season.

This puts Rudolph below players like Marcus Mariota, Andy Dalton, and Joe Flacco – all of whom have been benched after beginning the 2019 season as starters.

Rudolph has just 3 touchdowns and 5 interceptions over the past three weeks and hasn’t eclipsed an 86.0 quarterback rating since week 5. In fact, Rudolph has averaged just a 72.6 over the previous four games – the worst mark in the league among starting quarterbacks.

Things won’t get any easier for Rudolph as he will be without two of his top weapons in JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Conner. Fortunately, Pittsburgh is matched up against arguably the league’s worst team in the Cincinnati Bengals.

Mike Tomlin was high on Mason Rudolph when he came out of the draft in 2018, but with the way he has been playing recently, Rudolph should be on thin ice. With each passing week, it’s beginning to look less and less like Rudolph could the quarterback of the future in Pittsburgh. Let’s hope he can do enough to change our minds at some point.