For a veteran like Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph, shining during a handful of padless OTA practices isn\u2019t groundbreaking news. But his presence as a leader for a young offense looking for someone to follow is important, and one week in, Rudolph is doing the job. Even as questions swirl around Aaron Rodgers, who could sign at a moment\u2019s notice and bump Rudolph down the depth chart, Rudolph is acting as if he\u2019s the guy from start to finish. That caught the attention of beat writer Mike Prisuta.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally impressed with Mason Rudolph in terms of how calm he is,\u201d Prisuta told Missi Matthews in a wrap-up video for the team\u2019s YouTube channe<\/a>l. \u201cHow he understands that right now it\u2019s about him and he can\u2019t do anything about\u00a0 [anything] other than him. Maybe Aaron Rodgers is coming, maybe he isn\u2019t, but right now, Mason Rudolph is QB1.\u201d<\/p>\n During Tuesday\u2019s first practice, Rudolph fielded multiple questions about his status as the starting quarterback and the Steelers\u2019 interest in Rudolph. His answers hit all the right notes, focusing on the players who are here and how to grow their, and his own, game. Rudolph told reporters he\u2019s tuned out the \u201cnoise\u201d of the rumors, speculation, and reports after dealing with them throughout his career.<\/p>\n A bumpy road has given Rudolph experiences to fall back on. A difficult 2019 season, rotating with Duck Hodges as both players struggled to fill Ben Roethlisberger\u2019s big shoes. Buried on the depth chart in 2022 and 2023 before taking advantage of his opportunity late in the \u201923 season, leading the Steelers to the playoffs. Spending last year in Tennessee without much talent on a team that would go on to have the No. 1 overall pick. Now, Rudolph finds himself back in Pittsburgh, turning down offers from other teams in part because of his fit in Arthur Smith\u2019s system.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI just really like the way he\u2019s handled himself,\u201d Prisuta said.<\/p>\n Rudolph\u2019s professionalism won\u2019t deter the Steelers from pursuing Rodgers, who they believe will give the team a higher ceiling. As rocky as that saga has left things for the players, wondering when and if Rodgers will arrive, Rudolph has been a calming presence and someone to steady the ship. Assuming Rodgers does sign, Rudolph will become the No. 2 quarterback with a similar goal. Backup quarterbacks get called upon at a moment\u2019s notice, and Rudolph can come off the bench and run the Steelers\u2019 offense as designed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a veteran like Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph, shining during a handful of padless OTA practices isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,560,24822,18712,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-93812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mason-rudolph","10":"tag-mike-prisuta","11":"tag-missi-matthews","12":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114603806159515503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93812","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=93812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}