Mason Rudolph will start for the Steelers against the Ravens in a crucial game.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are sticking with Mason Rudolph even though their chances of making the playoffs are in jeopardy. Despite the fact that 2022 first-round selection Kenny Pickett has received the green light to play again after undergoing TightRope surgery on his ankle, head coach Mike Tomlin announced on Monday that he will continue to start Rudolph at quarterback in Saturday’s crucial regular-season finale against the Baltimore Ravens.
On Monday, Tomlin stated, “Kenny’s availability is less than question this week.” “I’m hoping he’ll be free to practice. Having said that, we have to let Mason Rudolph have the ball. He’s performed admirably, and throughout the last two weeks, we’ve performed admirably as well. We have attended to the ball. He is looking after the ball. We score points at a rate that we haven’t done this year up until now. And we’re going to give the ball over to him due to the urgency of the situation and those reasons.”
The Steelers need to defeat Balitmore and receive assistance from other teams during the last weekend of games in order to advance to the playoffs.
The Steelers offense has exploded to average 32 points and 432.5 yards of offense per game since Rudolph took over as the starting quarterback against the Cincinnati Bengals. Rudolph replaced Mitch Trubisky in the closing minutes of the team’s Week 15 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Rudolph gained 274 yards and no interceptions on 18 of 24 attempts in the victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
Regarding Rudolph, Tomlin stated, “He’s done a nice job.” “He truly does have a tremendous deal of confidence in himself. It seems contagious to me. His aggressive style of play is beneficial, especially when you’re up against it, in my opinion. It’s crucial to take cautious risks when pursuing triumph, and he has shown these qualities. However, it’s not only what he did; it’s also what we did, or that group of people did.
We are quite good at running the ball. We have experienced reasonable possession downtime for the past two weeks. We do a good job running the ball in the red area; yesterday, we added three rushing touchdowns to the area. You know, when you’re acting and performing that way, you can’t take on a lot of danger. Thus, for us, it’s just been a positive trend. We want to maintain that trajectory. We’re going up against a tremendously good opponent in a hostile environment—one that is obviously very heated. Therefore, in an attempt to win, we had better make use of every bit of magic that is available to us.”
Rudolph has two touchdowns in two starts and completed 68.5% of his pass attempts. His QBRs were 70.9 and 79.1, respectively. In contrast, Pickett has had difficulty during his second season. He has a 38.8 QBR, has completed 62% of his passes for touchdowns, and has four interceptions.
In addition, Rudolph is averaging 282 passing yards per contest, compared to Pickett’s 172.5 average throughout his 12 appearances. After being drafted in 2018, Rudolph’s tenure with the Steelers began turbulently when, in the opening game of the 2019 season, he abruptly replaced an ailing Ben Roethlisberger as quarterback.
That season, he started nine games and completed 13 touchdown passes against 9 interceptions before being benched in favor of Devlin “Duck” Hodges, a quarterback on the practice squad.
“There’s a fine line between being a backup and a Pro Bowler National Football League,” Tomlin stated. “Everyone is a professional. They’re all really skilled at what they do.
Prior to the last two games, Pickett participated minimally in each practice; he received the all-clear to play against the Seahawks. Nevertheless, Tomlin decided to start Rudolph and bench Pickett, using Trubisky as backup because both players received more practice time.
Regarding Pickett’s availability, Tomlin stated, “That clarity didn’t come until later in the week, and it was about the distribution of reps and who was most equipped and position to help us win. Thus, that’s the course of action we took.”
Tomlin declined to comment on how the Steelers’ long-term intentions with Pickett would be altered or whether Pickett would return to start should the club advance to the playoffs, despite the fact that the team is starting Rudolph against the Ravens. Pickett, who was selected in the 2022 draft, has two years remaining on his deal and a fifth-year option.
Regarding Pickett’s prospective postseason debut, Tomlin stated, “To be quite honest with you, man, it depends on what happens this week.” We operate more like a week-by-week, day-by-day group. We are currently at a loss for productive hypotheticals and speculation. We have a ton of real tasks ahead of us as well as a ton of challenges. Simply put, we’re not squandering a lot of time on speculation and similar activities.”