Steelers Have Found Their QB
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers should not be considering a quarterback change. It doesn't matter if Kenny Pickett is healthy or not, this team has finally found a QB who can get the job done - it's not the time to mess around with that.
Mason Rudolph put on a clinic in his first game since 2021. He looked poised, confident and like an actual NFL quarterback. There were not major mistakes - or really mistakes in general - and plenty of moments where you went "wow, look at how nice that read was."
It's been two years since the Steelers have had a quarterback who can go through his progressions as quickly and mindfully as Rudolph did against the Cincinnati Bengals.
And none of this has mentioned his deep balls. The Steelers have desperately needed to take shots on offense, but those shots needed to be the correct ones. With Mitch Trubisky, they were double-coverage shots. With Kenny Pickett, there were no shots.
With Rudolph, those shots resulted in splash plays and touchdowns.
"He was Mason," Mike Tomlin described it. ". ... He has belief in himself. He's aggressive in his play style. Thought he did a really good job not displaying a lot of rust for a guy who hasn't played a lot."
The last time Rudolph started for the Steelers on a consistent basis, he was working with a beat-up JuJu Smith-Schuster, a drops-prone Donte Moncrief, a banged-up James Conner, and a rookie Diontae Johnson.
To say his new group of weapons is better may be a bit of an understatement.
Moving forward, it's about sticking with him. The Steelers are 8-7 and still on the outside of the playoff picture in the AFC. They need to win these last two games to give themselves an opportunity to earn a playoff spot.
Now is not the time to go back to Pickett because you started the year with him. It's the time to ride the hot hand in hopes of that hand continuing to heat up.
The Steelers have their quarterback. If that needs to change, change it.
Right now, it doesn't need to.
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