Steelers fans went into the preseason hoping that sixth-round draft pick Will Howard would breathe life into their imagined status of him being a long-term hope at quarterback.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t, and won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Howard\u2019s broken finger will likely sideline him for the entire exhibition campaign.<\/p>\n
Instead, the citizens got a reminder of something they\u2019ve been unwilling to accept: Mason Rudolph is a good quarterback.<\/p>\n
Rudolph went 9 for 10 for 84 yards, a touchdown and a quarterback rating of 135.0 in the Steelers\u2019 31-25 preseason victory at Jacksonville on Saturday.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the stuff legends are made of. Not like Shedeur Sanders\u2019 overhyped pro debut for Cleveland on Friday.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s further proof of Rudolph\u2019s capability and a reminder of how well he played when he went 3-0 at the end of the 2023 season to squeak the Steelers into the postseason. (He lost the playoff game. Of course. Mike Tomlin was coaching.)<\/p>\n
Rudolph is one of the NFL\u2019s most reliable backups.<\/p>\n
Howard should hope he has a similar career. (He won\u2019t.)<\/p>\n
Rudolph has been handicapped in the eyes of Steelers fans by two incidents:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cleveland\u2019s Myles Garrett swung Rudolph\u2019s helmet at him during a 2019 altercation. A fabricated racial narrative accompanied.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rudolph was concussed vs. Baltimore in 2020, then looked goofy in the aftermath when his facemask was cut off. Rudolph resembled The Great Gazoo from \u201cThe Flintstones\u201d TV cartoon. That gave rise to the fabricated narrative that Duck Hodges was an NFL quarterback.<\/p>\n
Those episodes made Rudolph appear weak, and are remembered more than his successes.<\/p>\n
But now Steelers fans need to give him a chance.<\/p>\n
Aaron Rodgers is 41 and unlikely to be available for all 17 games. Even if Rodgers avoids cataclysmic injury, it\u2019s easy to imagine Rudolph starting several times.<\/p>\n
It should be less difficult to root for Rudolph now that he looks like Josh Brolin in \u201cNo Country for Old Men.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to sum up Rudolph: He\u2019s competent.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all the backup quarterback needs to be.<\/p>\n
Third-string hopeful Skylar Thompson had a big game at Jacksonville, albeit playing with\/against guys who will be bagging groceries inside a month.<\/p>\n
Thompson was 20 for 28 for 233 yards, three touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 132.0.<\/p>\n
If Howard had performed like that, Pittsburgh would be orgasmic. In the town\u2019s mind, Howard would be a candidate to start now. You\u2019d hear shouts for Howard to play upon Rodgers\u2019 first incompletion, never mind an interception: \u201cGIVE THE KID A CHANCE!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers fans went into the preseason hoping that sixth-round draft pick Will Howard would breathe life into their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-60879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}