After benching, Rudolph shows poise, toughness
There was Mason Rudolph, fresh off operating as the Steelers’ scout team quarterback, fielding questions on Thanksgiving day about how he’s attempting to navigate perhaps the most unforgiving 180 you could imagine for a secondyear player.
Exactly two weeks earlier, he was 4-2 as an NFL starter and leading an offense for a team that was on a three-game winning streak and right back in playoff position.
Since then, he had his worst game as a pro, another start that wasn’t much better, an in-game benching and now, potentially, a long-term benching all while being at the center of one of the most discussed onfield melees in recent memory.
“You handle it with a good attitude, a team-first attitude,” Rudolph said Thursday, commenting for the first time on Mike Tomlin’s decision to sit him and name Devlin Hodges the starter. “I can
“There is some past experience you do draw from. I conquered that, and I think I’m going to conquer this the same way.”
Mason Rudolph
only control how I react and how hard I prepare, knowing I’m one play away — and support the guy, knowing it’s a crazy game and you’ve got to be ready when your number’s called. I’ll be ready, for sure.”
Rudolph’s career has been turned upside-down both from a performance and, realistically, reputation standpoint in the 14 days since he took his first snap against the Cleveland Browns. Now, the Browns are coming to Pittsburgh for an AFC North rematch, and if all goes to plan for his team, Rudolph won’t be a part of it.
He characterized the difficult conversation with Tomlin as “this isn’t a final decision,” according to his coach. But naturally, in a season that essentially has been an audition for Ben Roethlisberger’s potential successor, Rudolph’s progress has done an about-face, to the point that he’s being replaced by an undrafted rookie in the throes of a playoff race.
“I would say he’s pretty much done what everyone would do if you haven’t really been playing your best and the team chooses to go a different way,” said backup offensive lineman Chuks Okorafor, who came in with Rudolph in last year’s draft class. “I think he’s doing it in a good way. Most guys might’ve shut down and not speak to any of his teammates, but he’s pretty much been the same. In terms of practice — scout team or whatever — he’s still doing everything the same way.
“I don’t feel like I have to talk to him more because of what happened. We can keep things the same way.”
When Rudolph inherited the No. 1 job from Roethlisberger, his career was playing out just as it had in his previous stops. At Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, S.C., where he replaced a three-star prospect and became a four-star himself, then at Oklahoma State, where he got the nod due to injury and never gave the spot back.
But Rudolph thought for a second and pointed two twice in his life when he wasn’t on a constant upward trajectory. There was the time in high school he was benched, though you won’t find any articles on it and he surely didn’t have to address TV cameras about the situation, and once at Oklahoma State, though it was only for the second half of the Sugar Bowl at the end of the 2015 season. Rudolph came back the next year as a junior and threw for 4,091 yards and 28 touchdowns to four interceptions.
“There is some past experience you do draw from,” Rudolph said. “I conquered that, and I think I’m going to conquer this the same way.”
When wide receiver Deon Cain joined the Steelers Nov. 16 from the Indianapolis practice squad, Rudolph was coming off his four-interception game against the Browns, emerging — quite literally — from the bottom of the pile that is now in the first section of his Wikipedia page. Cain’s only reception so far with his new team was a 35-yarder
from Rudolph last week at Cincinnati, a throw that Rudolph failed to build on in that game but showed Cain what could be in this offense.
For his part, Cain has seen Rudolph handle his demotion — and everything else — with poise.
“Probably in the most professional way,” Cain said. “He’s been still practicing hard, still talking to the guys to help us out the best way he can. He’s still playing like he’s still going to start on Sunday again, and you want that in your quarterbacks, to keep pushing each other. I feel like having him on the side, him pushing Duck, is going to keep everyone good.”
Rudolph wasn’t blindsided by Tomlin’s turn to Hodges. He admitted he thought there was a chance after the way the Bengals win played out, but insisted it wasn’t affecting his mentality early in the week. As for the potential distractions surrounding him since the first Browns meeting, Rudolph reiterated as he has all along that the fight fallout and Myles Garrett’s ensuing accusation that he used a racial slur were not weighing heavy on his mind.
“I don’t think so at all,” Rudolph said. “That last allegation made by him, it was about a day to kind of handle that and once I moved forward, I was clear-headed and ready to play Cincinnati. Just got to play better, make corrections and move on.”
At least for now, he’ll have to do that on the practice field and from the sideline. It’s not how anyone thought his first season of game action would go, especially not when he threw at least one touchdown in his first eight appearances and was doing enough to keep the Steelers afloat rather than sinking them.
He’s doing his best to shut out the noise, the headlines, the videos of Browns fans swinging a helmet at a pinata of his likeness. Rudolph has taken plenty of hits, but vows to stand strong through all the adversity, between the lines and away from them.
“Obviously, that specific allegation, yes, it affects my family and it’s tough for them to see something so false be circulated about my family name,” Rudolph said. “So, that’s tough, but coach Tomlin talked about it well. When you’re in the spotlight, you need to expect those types of things to be said. You need to block it out and move on. That’s what I’ve done and what I’ll continue to do.”
Note
Running back James Conner (shoulder) practiced for the first time since the Browns game, according to the team injury report, but on a limited basis. Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster did not participate again as he recovers from a knee injury. Left tackle Alejandro VIllanueva practiced in full after being limited Wednesday with a shoulder injury, and cornerback Artie Burns also was upgraded from nonparticipant to limited with a knee injury.