Mason Rudolph recently voiced that he wants to be the starting quarterback in 2022, but here’s why he’s not the signal-caller the Steelers need.
The Steelers made an interesting move this offseason when they signed backup quarterback, Mason Rudolph to a one-year extension through the 2022 season. Though many fans thought nothing of this, perhaps Pittsburgh has a plan after all.
Rudolph recently spoke to the media following OTAs where he made it blatantly clear why he stayed in Pittsburgh instead of electing to test the free-agent market next year: he wants to be the starting quarterback. Here’s what he had to say, according to Brooke Pryor of ESPN:
Mason Rudolph says it's his goal to be the Steelers' starter in 2022.
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) June 8, 2021
"That's my goal, to be a starting quarterback in this league, and for my team."
I’m not going to fault Mason Rudolph a bit for making this statement. What is he supposed to say? ‘I want to be a career backup’? But regardless of what Rudolph thinks of himself and his aspirations of the future with this team, he’s not the quarterback the Steelers need in 2022 and beyond.
Why Rudolph isn’t the QB Steelers need
I have no doubts that Mason Rudolph can stick in this league for a long time as a quality backup – and he could be a very good one. However, I just don’t see any way that he can (or should) be the franchise quarterback for the Steelers after Ben Roethlisberger is gone in 2022.
In my assessment, Rudolph is exactly what I expected him to be coming out of Oklahoma State in 2018. Despite his outrageously good college production, I could read between the lines to see that he wasn’t as good of a prospect as others were making him out to be.
At 6’5” and 235 pounds, Rudolph is a big quarterback, but there is literally no correlation between size and success in today’s NFL. What he does possess in size, he lacks in athletic traits, as Rudolph is a statue in the pocket with almost no ability to get outside of the framework and extend the play. This alone is reason enough for fans to not want him to be the answer in 2022.
Additionally, Rudolph has a good, but not great arm and his accuracy is all over the place. Everyone tries to use his Week 17 game against the Browns to justify how good of a quarterback he has become. Though Rudolph did exceed expectations in that game, the results were very underwhelming. He completed just 56 percent of his passes for 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, and just an 89.2 passer rating, according to Pro Football Reference.
Quarterback is the most important position in football. There should be no dispute about this whatsoever. As such, why would the Steelers want to settle here? Why would they rather keep a possibly low-end starting quarterback with an average skill set on his second or third contract when they could draft a player with much more talent and upside?
In my assessment, Mason Rudolph is a quarterback who may be able to keep the Steelers in the hunt most of the time, but I don’t believe he’s a guy that is ever going to compete for a championship. And if that is the case, there’s no sense wasting any more time trying to make him something that he’s not.