My, how the mighty have fallen. 

The Pittsburgh Steelers were the pinnacle of stability for a decade and a half. Ben Roethlisberger left no doubt that he was the starter until his retirement after the 2021 season. 

Since then, the Steelers have turned into a quarterback carousel. The Steelers thought they found their succession plan in 2022 when they drafted Kenny Pickett in the first round. 

But the story of drafting the Pitt kid to captain the Steelers was too good to be true. Pickett flopped, and in an un-Steelers-like move, the organization moved on from him two years later. They reworked their quarterback room to have incoming free agent Russell Wilson as the starter and trade acquisition Justin Fields as the backup. 

Much was made of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s handling of the two quarterbacks, benching Fields at 4-2 when Wilson returned from an offseason injury. But despite the overhaul at football’s most important position, Pittsburgh’s result was the same — 10-7 and a first round blowout loss. 

Now, after dropping the ball and getting outbid by the New York Jets for free agent Fields, the Steelers are down to only aging or journeyman options to fill the starter’s role. 

But while ex-Jet Aaron Rodgers aimlessly wanders a Malibu beach and Russell Wilson flirts with other teams, the Steelers have brought back a familiar face. On Thursday, the Steelers signed Mason Rudolph to a two-year, $8 million deal for him to return to Pittsburgh. 

Rudolph has had one of the more interesting career arcs in the NFL. He was a third-round selection by the Steelers in 2018. Rudolph’s first action came the following year, when Roethlisberger went down with a season-ending elbow injury and Rudolph was thrust into action. In an albeit tough situation, Rudolph far from excelled, eventually battling with third stringer Devlin “Duck” Hodges down the stretch for playing time. 

Rudolph remained the unpopular backup for two more years before the Steelers relegated him to third-string duty in 2022, following the drafting of Kenny Pickett and the signing of Mitch Trubisky. 

Rudolph remained banished in the shadow realm until Week 16 of 2023, when Pickett was still injured and Trubisky failed to do anything. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was forced to throw his hands up in the air and turn to Rudolph. 

It was Rudolph’s finest hour, his red nose shining bright as he put up one of the best games of his career and turned from public enemy to folk hero in Pittsburgh. He swiped the starter’s job away from an underperforming Pickett, dragging a 7-7 Steelers team to three straight wins and a surprise playoff appearance. 

He was the final straw for the Steelers with Pickett. The Steelers, having their former first rounder showed up by Rudolph, pushed the front office to make wholesale changes at the position after their wild card loss in Buffalo. Despite his heroics, Rudolph wasn’t retained and left for Tennessee on a one-year deal to compete with sophomore NFLer Will Levis. 

Now, after a year where Rudolph started five games and appeared in eight, Rudolph is back for another tour with the Steelers. He’s a strong insurance policy, and as crazy as it sounds, there’s a chance that he is the Week 1 starter for the Steelers. 

The love affair between Wilson and the Steelers is now very one-sided, with the former looking for any work and the latter looking for anybody else. If the Steelers find no other option, Rudolph is not the worst player to have under-center. 

Despite possessing a poor record as a starter in Tennessee, Rudolph’s 191.3 passing yards per game in his eight games was the best figure of his NFL career. He threw nine touchdowns and as many interceptions. His nine interceptions tied his 2019 career high, but it’s important to note that two of those were tipped off his receivers and one was on an end-of-game lateral attempt. 

He’s someone who can step in and operate an NFL offense, and at 29 he’s pretty much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of player. Despite the Steelers having since changed offensive coordinators, Rudolph is familiar with Tomlin’s offensive style in a sans-Roethlisberger offense. He’s familiar with a lot of the weapons still on the offense. 

And if nothing else, Rudolph could help keep George Pickens and recent trade acquisition DK Metcalf happy. Rudolph’s greatest strength on an NFL field is the deep ball. His ability to stand in the pocket and just heave it is incredibly conducive to talents like Pickens and Metcalf, who thrive off 50/50 balls like that. 

Pickens, for example, averaged 94 yards a game in four games from Rudolph. He averaged 60.4 in 44 games with every other Steelers quarterback and 67 in eight games with Wilson. Sure, they’re small sample sizes, but that’s certainly not nothing. 

At the end of the day, it’s a great signing. Rudolph has proven himself as a capable backup quarterback. Whether it was the Steelers not having a quarterback coach when he was drafted, Roethlisberger publicly questioning his draft or a low fan approval rating, Rudolph was always a consummate professional. He’s 9-8-1 — 8-4-1 with the Steelers — and offers plenty of experience. 

In a “worst case” scenario, Rudolph can fill in as the starter in what is increasingly looking like a bridge year for the Steelers. But if you want to get really crazy, the Steelers could hypothetically build an offense strong enough that even a middle of the road guy like Rudolph could excel in it. 

If the Steelers keep Pickens — as they should — and sign someone like Cooper Kupp, plus draft a few more offensive weapons come April, they could throw all their cap space at the offense to try and prop up their quarterback. As crazy as that sounds, it might have comparable support to re-signing 36-year-old Wilson or 41-year-old Rodgers.

Of course, the far more likely scenario is that he’s the backup, and that’s more than fine.