Tag: mason rudolph

Steelers addition of OC Arthur Smith could mean the end for Mason Rudolph

Mason Rudolph doesn’t fit how Arthur Smith likes to use his quarterbacks.

On Friday, the Pittsburgh Steelers officially announced Arthur Smith as the team’s new offensive coordinator. We have and will continue to dig into everything the addition could mean for this team but let’s talk about one big thing specific to the quarterback position.

The best quarterback on the Steelers last season was Mason Rudolph. After an ineffective Kenny Pickett went down with an injury, Rudolph stepped up when Mitch Trubisky struggled and helped carry the offense.

Rudolph is also a free agent and the first inclination is for the Steelers to do their best to re-sign him despite the presence of Kenny Pickett. However, if you dig into what Smith likes to do with the quarterback, Rudolph may not have a place on the depth chart.

Going back to when Smith was the offensive coordinator through his time with the Falcons, Smith utilized a near-exclusive zone scheme and loved to utilize zone runs with the quarterback. Whether it was Ryan Tannehill, Marcus Mariota or Desmond Ridder, Smith wants to use an athletic quarterback to expand the rushing offense.

Rudolph does a lot of great things but he is not going to frighten anyone with his legs. He’s more late-career Ben Roethlisberger than early-career Roethlisberger. We’ve never felt like Pickett utilized his athleticism nearly enough so the addition of Smith could be huge for Pickett in 2024.

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Quick Steelers takeaways from Art Rooney II’s interview

Art Rooney talked about the Steelers 2023 season and looked ahead to 2024.

On Monday, Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II did a sit down with Rob King and discussed the 2023 season and looked ahead to the 2024 season. Here are the quick highlights from the interview.

Steelers OC candidate Zac Robinson headed to Falcons

You can mark Zac Robinson off the list of potential offensive coordinator candidates for the Steelers.

The first of the Pittsburgh Steelers potential offensive coordinator candidates is now off the market. According to Pro Football Talk, Zac Robinson accepted the offensive coordinator vacancy with the Atlanta Falcons and will be joining new head coach Raheem Morris.

Removing Robinson from the mix leaves, Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson, former NFL head coach Kliff Kingsbury and former Panthers OC Thomas Brown are the known candidates still in the mix.

We really felt like the Steelers had an inside track on hiring Robinson given his history with quarterback Mason Rudolph. Now you have to wonder if this could be a domino falling in the Steelers ability to re-sign Rudolph. Rudolph and Robinson are good friends and Robinson coached and even lived with Rudholph when he was preparing for the NFL draft.

Hiring Robinson might have been motivation for Rudolph to re-sign but now Rudolph might look to sign with the Falcons who are in need of a starting quarterback.

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Steelers on the clock over quarterback position

The Steelers have some big decisions to make about the quarterback decision and they will come quickly.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have three quarterbacks but the only one we are sure will be on the team in 2024 is Kenny Pickett. This puts the Steelers front office on the clock in coming up with a plan for how to address the position.

Mason Rudolph was the late-season hero when he took over the starting spot. Rudolph rallied the troops, played with confidence and opened up the offense. But now he is staring down free agency and after his strong finish, should have options.

Then there is Mitch Trubisky. Trubisky’s addition was supposed to be the bridge to the future after the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger. But when he was called upon in 2023, he let the team down. He is, however, under contract through the 2025 season.

So what are the Steelers to do? They would save more against the cap to release Trubisky with a post-June 1 designation, meaning he might stick around a little longer. Nevertheless, there’s no value in keeping Trubisky, especially if it means losing an opportunity to re-sign Rudolph.

But what happens if Rudolph does sign somewhere else? Will this force the Steelers to keep Trubisky? That kind of decision could depend on not only other free-agent quarterbacks and the 2024 NFL draft. The team should know what’s going on with Rudolph before the draft and if he is re-signed, it would allow Pittsburgh to jettison Trubisky and fill out the depth chart with either a low-cost vet or a rookie.

However, if Rudolph leaves, Pittsburgh might want to go ahead and cut Trubisky loose and just start fresh.

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Looking at the Steelers final PFF grades on offense

The Steelers offense struggled in 2023.

Pro Football Focus is one of those sites that put in a tremendous amount of work into creating player grades for every NFL player week after week and for the entire season. It’s a massive process and their player grades are completely polarizing among the NFL.

The Pittsburgh Steelers offense was underwhelming to say the least. Here’s how PFF broke down the grades for the Steelers offensive stars.

Steelers offensive coordinator interview tracker

All eyes are on Mike Tomlin to get this hire right.

Updated: Jan. 28

The search is underway for a bright, young offensive mind to conceive a plan to get the Pittsburgh Steelers on a steady, competitive path. Whether it’s Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph or insert name at the helm in 2024, he’ll be guided by a new coordinator.

The process started on January 22 when Pittsburgh requested an interview with Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator Zac Robinson.

There’s no telling how many candidates the Steelers plan to interview, and, of course, there’s the Rooney Rule — stating all clubs must interview at least one minority candidate for coordinator positions.

Many names have been floated since Matt Canada was fired. We’ll see if any of them end up being brought in. The list will be updated here as names are announced.

Here’s a look at potential Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator candidates:

Zac Robinson’s connection to Steelers QB Mason Rudolph is strong

There is a long standing history between Mason Rudolph and Zac Robinson.

News came out on Monday that the Pittsburgh Steelers had requested permission to interview Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Zac Robinson for their offensive coordinator vacancy. Robinson is the first candidate we’ve heard could be interviewed.

Whenever a name comes out, we always want to look for connections and boy howdy do we have some with Robinson and Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph.

Rudolph and Mason actually lived together as Robinson coached Rudolph in his predraft preparations ahead of the 2018 NFL draft. The Steelers selected Robinson in the third round out of Oklahoma State where Robinson also played quarterback. Robinson said he became like a big brother more than a coach as he helped set up Rudolph’s combine and pro day workouts. The two also trained together during Rudolph’s time at Oklahoma State prior to his final season.

Robinson has a great deal of familiarity with Rudolph, obviously. This could not only be a draw for Robinson to join the Steelers but also motivation for Rudolph to want to re-sign with the team.

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Steelers final 2024 stats – Offense

The Steelers defensive grades were dominated by its edge rushers.

The Pittsburgh Steelers offense struggled for much of the 2023 season. Why did it struggle? That is a point of debate but it’s safe to say it was a combination of factors that led to the problems. Here’s how the offensive stars finished.

Former Steelers WR Antonio Brown endorses Mason Rudolph as starting quarterback

Mason Rudolph has lots of fans among Steelers receivers.

It seems that every Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver past and present are chiming in about the Steelers quarterback situation. We’ve already heard Diontae Johnson endorse Mason Rudolph to be the starter next year, George Pickens called Rudolph the GOAT and now former Steeler Antonio Brown joined the party.

Brown went on Twitter and gave fans a shot to ask him some questions and one was a two-parter. First, who would he have start at quarterback and how many times would he target Pickens? Brown was definitive in naming Rudolph as the starter and said Pickens should see 16 targets per game.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has already said he wants the team to re-sign Rudolph and had nothing but positive things to say about his play at the end of the season. Rudolph should have some options in free agency and without assurances he will be the starter in Pittsburgh in 2024, he might move on for a better opportunity.

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Steelers WR George Pickens calls Mason Rudolph the GOAT

Both Steelers top WR endorse Mason Rudolph for starting quarterback.

The Pittsburgh Steelers passing offense looked stuck in neutral for most of the 2023 season until Mason Rudolph took over the starting quarterback job the final three games of the season. Rudolph played with a confidence we hadn’t seen since Ben Roethlisberger ran the offense and the entire offense was better.

We already talked about wide receiver Diontae Johnson endorsing Rudolph to be the starting quarterback next season despite Rudolph being set to hit free agency. Now it’s fellow wide receiver George Pickens giving props to Rudolph.

Pickens responded to an Instagram post that Rudolph made about how thankful he was to have had the opportunity to play for the Steelers this season and recognized his teammates. To which Pickens let the goat emoji. Five of them actually.

That’s both of the Steelers starting wide receivers essentially endorsing a return of Rudolph so he can take over the offense. This could really put some pressure on head coach Mike Tomlin and the front office to get Rudolph a new contract. But what does Kenny Pickett think of both his top pass catchers siding with the guy who replaced him?

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