Pittsburgh Steelers: 5 Reasons to Believe in Mason Rudolph
By Chris Ross
When Ben Roethlisberger was lost for the season, many Pittsburgh Steelers fans lost hope in the 2019-20 season, but with Mason Rudolph taking over this team will be just fine.
When the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Mason Rudolph in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft, they had their eye on a post-Ben Roethlisberger future. With Big Ben out for the season with an elbow injury, Rudolph has a chance to show that the team was right to invest in him as their quarterback of the future. Despite a fair amount of skepticism regarding his ability to be a capable starter, the fact is, Rudolph has all the tools to be the next great Steelers quarterback.
With that in mind, the former Oklahoma State standout has a lot of work to do if he’s going to reach his full potential. He enters a difficult situation with the team sitting at 0-2, but he did show some resiliency last week when he had to come in relief, tossing two touchdown passes. It certainly wasn’t perfect, as he underthrew a long ball to JuJu Smith-Schuster that should have been a touchdown, but for a second-year quarterback entering a game unexpectedly, he played well.
Moving forward, there is no reason to think that Mason Rudolph won’t be a successful quarterback for the Steelers. Roethlisberger is a Pittsburgh legend and won’t easily be replaced, but with a long recovery ahead, this is Rudolph’s team for the foreseeable future. As the season teeters on the brink of disaster, expect the new starting quarterback to surprise everyone as a calming presence.
Don’t press the panic button yet Steelers fans, because Mason Rudolph is worth believing in.