Mason Rudolph played a solid game against the Browns to close out the season, but here’s why he can’t be the franchise QB Steelers fans are hoping for.
I’ll be the first to admit that I had very low expectations for the Steelers heading into their Week 17 matchup against the Cleveland Browns. Though Pittsburgh had just clinched the division one week earlier in a comeback win against the Indianapolis Colts, the Browns had were fighting for a playoff spot this week.
After suffering through watching Mason Rudolph for 8 games and 10 starts last season with Ben Roethlisberger on IR, I was expecting to see something along the lines of what we’ve been accustomed to seeing after 2019, but that wasn’t the case at all. Though Rudolph managed a pathetic 5.7 adjusted yards per attempt on the season last year, he looked down the field early and often in his Week 17 start against Cleveland. As a result, he managed 315 yards and a whopping 8.1 yards per attempt – the latter being a number Ben Roethlisberger hasn’t seen in 20 games dating back to Week 14 of the 2018 season.
While Rudolph showed promise in a few areas, he still clearly lacks a few essential traits that will impede his ability to be a franchise quarterback when Big Ben hangs it up. Here are four crucial traits that Mason Rudolph just doesn’t have:
Pocket awareness
This was something that was glaringly evident in his lone start of the 2020 season and has been an issue his whole career. While Rudolph may be willing to stand in the pocket and deliver a pass under pressure, he doesn’t exactly have eyes in the back of his head.
As a result, Rudolph was sacked just once but forced a number of poor throws – one resulting in a second-half interception that may have cost Pittsburgh the game. For the most part, Rudolph was very well protected in Week 17, but when the pocket collapses, he lacks the awareness to feel it coming.
Mobility
If we were to start listing off some of the least mobile quarterbacks in the NFL, Mason Rudolph’s name would be near the top of the list. Running just a 4.9 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, players like Brandon Weeden, Curtis Painter, and Matt Ryan are faster. Even the 6’7” statue, Joe Flacco tested as a faster player than Rudolph at the Combine.
While we are hardly ever going to see a quarterback running in a straight line for 40 yards, his extremely poor number is just a testament to what a bad athlete he is with his legs. His film backs this up completely. Against Cleveland, Rudolph was a sitting duck when the pocket collapsed. Without the legs to escape the pressure, it’s either going to be a poor throw or a sack for Rudolph.
In today’s NFL, the prototypical quarterback has the ability to make plays with their legs as well as their arm. This doesn’t mean that you need to be able to run like Lamar Jackson, but having the escapability to extend the play and buy yourself enough time to roll out and make a play down the field is a huge positive. Rudolph doesn’t even have this, and a player who can only throw in timing from a clean pocket doesn’t have the makings of an NFL passer in today’s league.
Velocity
You better believe that there is a difference between tossing the ball to a receiver 40 yards down the sideline or putting that same pass on a rope in a tight window. Mason Rudolph can do the former, as he has shown time and again since his days at Oklahoma State, but when it comes to velocity, he is only average in this department.
Where this lack of velocity shows up must on film is on deeps out routes. Where some upper-echelon quarterbacks can make these passes with ease, Rudolph struggles to get the ball out there fast enough to be an effective passer on these types of routes.
Rudolph could get by with average velocity on his ball if he made up with it for his legs, elusiveness in the pocket, or pinpoint accuracy, but he doesn’t possess any of these qualities. With defenses that are more athletic than ever, Rudolph must be able to zip the ball into tight windows in order to be a complete passer, but this could be something he struggles with throughout his career. The velocity is modest, but when combined with his other traits, it doesn’t have the makings of a franchise passer.
Accuracy
Though I’ve broken down dozens of games of Mason Rudolph, including his tape at Oklahoma State, it only takes a few games to figure out the type of passer that he is. As a statue of a quarterback, Rudolph needs to be much more accurate than what he is. Instead, we can describe him as ‘generally accurate’ – giving his receiver a chance at the ball, but not always in perfect stride.
A player like Matt Ryan, for instance, would be the opposite. Though Ryan clearly lacks the mobility to get outside of the pocket often, he is what we would classify as a precision passer with his ability to drop the ball in a bucket and hit a crosser in perfect stride across the field. Rudolph doesn’t have these same traits when it comes to accuracy.
Much like his average velocity, we could live with this subpar trait if he were a more complete player in other areas of the game, but that’s not the case.
With an average NFL arm, a severe lack of mobility, and questionable pocket awareness, it’s really hard to believe that Mason Rudolph will be anything more than a quality backup throughout his career – even with a somewhat promising game against the Browns to close out the season. If you’re asking me, the Steelers would be wise to invest in a quarterback with more physical tools and upside than Rudolph moving forward.