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\u201cThey are taking years off the lives of guys who are potential Hall of Fame players,\u201d McFarland said<\/a> on ESPN\u2019s \u201cNFL Live.\u201d \u201cWhen you talk about Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick, if you go out there with Mason Rudolph in game one, if I\u2019m Cam Heyward, I might not even show up, because if you\u2019re not going to put forth the effort offensively or organizationally, why do you want me out here?\u201d<\/p>\n Pittsburgh has been wasting some of the NFL\u2019s most talented players. The team is currently in the franchise\u2019s longest postseason win drought, having not won a playoff game since the 2016 season.<\/p>\n Watt, a NFL Defensive Player of the Year, seven-time Pro Bowler and likely future Hall of Famer, has never won a playoff game.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt during a playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 11, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n However, completely abandoning the team if it turns to Rudolph seems a bit excessive. Rudolph has proven the ability to step up when needed.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n He was first thrust into the starting role when quarterback Ben Roethlisberger suffered a season-ending elbow injury in Week 2 of the 2019 season. He started eight games and completed 176 of 283 passes (62.2%) for 1,765 yards (6.2 yards per attempt), 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions.<\/p>\n Rudolph was then given the opportunity to start once again for final three games of the 2023 regular season after Kenny Pickett was lost to a high-ankle sprain and Mitchell Trubisky struggled in his limited action.<\/p>\n He responded with the best play of his career, completing 55 of 75 passes (74.3%) for 719 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions while leading Pittsburgh to three straight victories and a playoff spot.<\/p>\n No, Rudolph doesn\u2019t make the Steelers a Super Bowl contender, but neither does 41-year-old Rodgers. So even if Pittsburgh doesn\u2019t land Rodgers, which still seems unlikely, the team\u2019s veterans would only hurt their legacies by holding out.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Steelers Now<\/a>: Former NFL Player Thinks Steelers Vets Should Hold Out if Mason Rudolph Starts<\/a><\/p>\n Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN analyst Booger McFarland thinks the Pittsburgh Steelers veterans should hold out if quarterback Mason Rudolph starts. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1586,117,6594,8913,344,256,9676,7,570,560,7583,12568,6,57,20330,5226],"class_list":{"0":"post-74767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-ben-roethlisberger","11":"tag-booger-mcfarland","12":"tag-cam-heyward","13":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","14":"tag-ed-thompson","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-kenny-pickett","17":"tag-mason-rudolph","18":"tag-minkah-fitzpatrick","19":"tag-mitchell-trubisky","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","22":"tag-playoff-game","23":"tag-t-j-watt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114561311391651861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Pittsburgh](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3dd90146aaf83ae00cbadb50e7cd50c0.jpeg\"\/)
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