Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Mason Rudolph has been involved in plenty of trade speculation since the team signed Mitch Trubisky in free agency and drafted rookie, Kenny Pickett in the first round of April's NFL Draft. Pittsburgh may have a confusing situation at the signal-caller position, but all three of these guys could serve as a backup and even starters on other teams as it stands today. That doesn't change the fact that the front office and Omar Khan have continuously stood behind Rudolph and said that there is no intention of trading the veteran.
Steelers QB Mason Rudolph in the team's final preseason game versus the Detroit Lions in 2022. | Credit: Matt Freed / Post-Gazette
The belief here is that head coach, Mike Tomlin and the coaching staff want to avoid what happened back in 2019. The Steelers traded Joshua Dobbs to the Jacksonville Jaguars just prior to the season starting and quarterback, Ben Roethilisberger ended up needing season-ending elbow surgery after Week 2 of the regular season. Rudolph and Devlin Hodges were the only options at the position and it made for an unsuccessful offensive year for the organization.
This is understandable, but there are options on the quarterback market to bring in to be the third guy in the room if the decision is made to move on from Rudolph. Additionally, the Steelers, as of now, only have six draft picks next year and two of those are in the seventh round.
About a year ago, Pittsburgh made the move to trade for cornerback, Ahkello Witherspoon from the Seattle Seahawks. The deal did seem to have worked out in the Steelers' favor as Witherspoon will be one of the defense's three starters at the position. In return for him, former general manager, Kevin Colbert gave up a 2023 fifth-round draft pick which Khan could most likely pull for Rudolph.
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As recent as Tuesday, the Steelers lost their sixth-round pick as well. The defense needed depth behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith at outside linebacker and Khan traded the Denver Broncos a 2023 sixth-round pick in exchange for linebacker, Malik Reed and Denver's 2023 seventh-round pick. As it stands today, the franchise will not make a pick in 2023 in the fifth or sixth rounds.
The team will have plenty of needs next off-season and all of them can't be satisfied with free agency. The draft has always been the Steelers resource of choice to add personnel and talent to the roster.
Don't read too much into Khan's comments about feeling good about the quarterback room and not trading Rudolph. A team's general manager would never come out and blatantly state that the expectation is to move someone, especially one of the quarterbacks.
One would have to expect some kind of move to receive draft compensation coming soon and Rudolph might be the player who is shown the door. If it's not before the season begins, it could happen at any point during the regular season. If the coaching staff and front office is happy with the play of Trubisky, Pickett or both, Rudolph could be on his way out.
An unfortunate injury to a team's backup or potentially starting quarterback could prompt someone to reach out to Khan and inquire about what it would take to land the veteran who is 5-4-1 in his starting career.
Do you view the Steelers lack of draft capital next year as a bad thing or is it not that big of a deal? Let us know in the comments below!
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