Want to know how bad the Pittsburgh Steelers’ current quarterback situation is? The team’s current starter, Mason Rudolph, was ranked as one of the worst backup quarterbacks in the NFL.
Rudolph is penciled in as Pittsburgh’s QB1 for now, but the overwhelming expectation is that Aaron Rodgers will sign at some point.
Sports Illustrated’s Gilberto Manzano anticipates Rodgers signing with the Steelers, which is why he had Rudolph in his rankings of backup quarterbacks. And, he has Rudolph all the way down at No. 26 on the list.
“Rudolph is penciled in as QB1 in Pittsburgh, but all signs point to Aaron Rodgers joining the team in time for training camp,” Manzano wrote. “(Although Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw is tired of waiting.) Rodgers made it evident by saying recently that he has plans to be in Chicago this season as an opposing player.
“The Steelers are scheduled to face the Bears in November. If Rodgers doesn’t sign, perhaps Rudolph is forced to compete with sixth-round rookie Will Howard for the starting gig,” he concluded.
The only quarterbacks to fall behind Rudolph were the New Orleans Saints’ Spencer Rattler (No. 27), the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Nick Mullens (No. 28), the Buffalo Bills’ Mitchell Trubisky (No. 29), the Houston Texans’ Davis Mills (No. 30), the Chicago Bears’ Tyson Bagent (No. 31) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Kyle Trask (No. 32). At least he landed ahead of Trubisky, I guess.
Rudolph’s placement on this list is just disrespectful.
Granted, nobody is going to say Rudolph is an elite backup quarterback, but he is better than the seventh-worst in the NFL. You need not look further for evidence of that than the three-game stretch he had at the end of the 2023 campaign that saved the Steelers’ season.
Manzano also places Rudolph behind less proven players like Jalen Milroe of the Seattle Seahawks, who is a rookie, and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Tanner McKee, a signal-caller who has just two games (one start) under his belt in the league.
There are several others who don’t deserve to be ranked ahead of Rudolph, like New York Giants rookie Jaxson Dart, but you get the idea at this point.
We do think the Steelers are absolutely doomed for 2025 if Rudolph is forced to start in the event that Rodgers doesn’t sign, but we do believe the former third-rounder is a capable backup who can keep a team afloat for a short period, and better than most.
