3 reasons Steelers need to start Rudolph over Roethlisberger

Bring back the deep ball

As stated before, Roethlisberger has struggled with the deep ball this season. This was apparent before his knee injury, as he was struggling with ball placement the further the pass was down the field. Since his injury, it has been even worse, as passes are constantly underthrown and inaccurate. With this offense becoming stale over the past couple of weeks, getting a quarterback that can make the deep pass would be a wise move.

All things considered; Rudolph isn’t a great deep passer. He has ok arm strength mixed in with ok accuracy, but at this point, his deep ball would be leaps and bounds better than Roethlisberger’s. In a game against the Colts that feature a good and physical secondary, mixing in a few deep passes to Washington, Chase Claypool, and even JuJu Smith-Schuster could set them off guard. As a result, more holes may open up on what is a pretty stout defense.

Again, Rudolph isn’t a great deep passer, but he would be a huge upgrade over Roethlisberger in that regard right now. Even if he misses most of them, having a quarterback make the defense respect the threat of a deep pass would allow this offense to move the ball better than they have. The Colts would have to at least respect the threat of a deep pass play. Defenses haven’t had to worry about that against the Steelers recently.

While the Steelers wouldn’t turn into a complete Air Raid offense due to inserting Rudolph in as the starter, it would at least allow for the offense to function as it should. Defenses would have to at least consider the potential of a deep pass even if it isn’t overly effective. The fact that Rudolph is healthy enough to add this wrinkle aids in his argument to start this week.