Steelers' George Pickens Praises Mason Rudolph For Being More Dynamic With The Deep Ball

The Pittsburgh Steelers came out of a terrible stretch of games and put out an incredible performance on all sides of the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals. The quarterback change seemed to be the spark that the team needed, as Mason Rudolph threw for 290 yards in a 34-11 dominating victory. There were 195 yards that went to George Pickens on four receptions, with one of those losing a yard. Rudolph took shot after shot throughout the game, and Pickens hauled in three of them. Two of them went for touchdowns. 

Pickens was asked about the aggressive strategy that the Steelers came into the game with in a postgame press conference. He praised his Rudolph while potentially throwing some shade at the other signal-callers.

"The plays we had dialed up, Mason just let it rip. It's all up to the QB and I feel like he was taking more shots personally."

The Steelers have had their issues with the deep pass for most of the season, as they commonly went to check downs and back-shoulder fades throughout Kenny Pickett's time under center. Mitch Trubisky tried to air the ball out deep, but he was reckless with the ball, and it led to some bad interceptions, which eventually led to him being benched. 

All throughout his press conference, Pickens praised Rudolph for everything that he did. While he had a great game, he was still smart and efficient, as the ball was never in harm's way. Even on nearly all the deep shots, the ball was put in a spot where the defender had no chance to make a play on the ball. Either his receivers would catch it, or no one would.

Even though Pickens was praising Rudolph for all those shots, that comment also seemed to be a bit of a jab at the other signal-callers that he had worked with throughout the 2023 season. Trubisky did not take many shots in his limited time as the quarterback, and even when he did try to just launch one, it would almost always be the wrong read, decision, or both.

Meanwhile, Pickett has not taken many deep shots either. His passes to Pickens were almost exclusively back-shoulder fades that had no chance of getting any yards after the catch. In fact, Pickett's struggles to give Pickens chances was part of the reason that he had outburst after outburst, even if he denies everything that he does in the locker room to the media. 

Steelers Have A Quarterback Controversy

It's safe to say that Pickens is more excited about having Rudolph as his quarterback than Pickett or Trubisky. Despite that, Mike Tomlin has not named a starting quarterback for their upcoming Week 17 match on the West Coast. Pickett should be healthy for that game, but that might not matter in the grand scheme of things. The Steelers' offense has shown more life with Rudolph under center than anyone else over the last three seasons. 

While Pickens' opinion on preference shouldn't matter much, the momentum that the Steelers have created should be taken into account. The team didn't even look this dominant in their first meeting against the Bengals, where they put up over 400 yards. They did not reach that yardage total, but they scored more than double the number of points that they tallied back in Week 12. While that game may not be sustainable, Tomlin has to strongly consider Rudolph to finish the season as the starting quarterback.

What do you think about George Pickens' comments about Mason Rudolph taking more deep shots than Kenny Pickett or Mitch Trubisky? Let us know in the comments.

#SteelerNation.