3 things we learned from Steelers’ Dwayne Haskins signing

Pittsburgh lacks faith in Mason Rudolph

For some time now, Mason Rudolph has been the expected go-to guy for the Steelers following the eventual end of Ben Roethlisberger’s reign. In my experience, many Pittsburgh fans have seemed content with this verdict. However, the signing of Dwayne Haskins this close to the predicted retirement of Big Ben tells a different story on behalf of the organization.

In my opinion, this says that not only does the franchise and its management have little faith in Rudolph’s ability to lead this team forward, but that it never had much in the first place. With that in mind, I would not blame Mason if he secretly looked for another roster to land on in his free time.

It is easily believable that Haskins could win the starting job over Rudolph. Neither of them have looked great in their performances, but Rudolph has struggled with a much better team than Dwayne has, and the latter’s ability with the Pittsburgh roster has not even been seen before. So who is anyone to say that Haskins will suck in the Steel City? They are not home to a snake-bitten team like Washington D.C. is. Not to mention that I would go as far as to say that Haskins has an athleticism advantage on Mason as well.

So to put it bluntly, if Dwayne has a halfway decent showcasing in practice and/or in the preseason slate (which he probably has a good chance of doing), then it is worth betting that he could swipe the to-be starting job from Rudolph before the 2021-22 NFL season officially begins. Considering that Mason has been in Pittsburgh his entire career so far, waiting for a chance to start on a consistent basis, a new guy coming in and taking over last-minute would constitute an attempt to look for hire elsewhere, and understandably so.