Despite all the confusion regarding the Aaron Rodgers saga this offseason, we have a decent idea as to who the starting quarterback in Pittsburgh is going to be. If Rodgers signs, then that\u2019s your answer. If he doesn\u2019t, Mason Rudolph is the next man up.<\/p>\n
Some see the difference between those two players as a big one. Former Steeler Bryant McFadden doesn\u2019t hold that same opinion. Speaking on CBS Sports H<\/a>Q<\/a> on Monday, McFadden said the gap between the two isn\u2019t anything drastic.<\/p>\n \u201cI think with Aaron Rodgers, I realistically see nine to 10 wins,\u201d McFadden said. \u201c10 being best-case scenario. If Mason Rudolph is the guy moving forward, I see, best-case scenario, nine, potentially eight, seven wins. So that\u2019s not a drastic gap of separation when you look at numbers. But clearly, if you win nine, 10 ballgames, you have an opportunity to get into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n McFadden may be in the minority in this opinion. The Steelers do like Rudolph, as they decided to bring him back despite a failed tenure in Tennessee. And that time with the Titans last year was rough. Rudolph threw an equal number of touchdowns to interceptions, with nine apiece. It\u2019s not entirely his fault, as the roster around him was poor in general. Still, not many expect Pittsburgh to be able<\/a> to make a serious playoff run without Rodgers in the fold.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean McFadden is wrong, though. Rudolph has had success in Pittsburgh before. Back in 2023, he took over as the starter with three games left in the regular season and managed to win all three games. That helped propel the Steelers into the playoffs, although they were quickly eliminated by the Buffalo Bills.<\/p>\n With that said, Mason Rudolph has never established himself as a full-time starter. Expecting him to lead the Steelers to even nine wins, which McFadden lists as the best-case scenario, is a lot. He\u2019s got to play Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow twice a year, and also finishes the season on arguably the toughest schedule<\/a> in the league. If Rudolph even manages to sneak the Steelers into the playoffs, it\u2019s hard to imagine them making much noise there.<\/p>\n Yet, the Steelers don\u2019t really have another choice. And to be fair, it\u2019s hard to blame McFadden for not being overly high on a 41-year-old quarterback in Rodgers. In the 2026 draft, Pittsburgh will hope to find its quarterback of the future. For now, they\u2019ll have to keep bouncing around between middle-of-the-pack options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite all the confusion regarding the Aaron Rodgers saga this offseason, we have a decent idea as to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,19009,4830,7,560,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-82127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-bryant-mcfadden","10":"tag-cbs-sports-hq","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-mason-rudolph","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-pittsburgh","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","17":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114578545977806564","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82127","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=82127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}