Will Howard

Those are all really solid points.

For me, and I think you are not too far away from this, the entire KP debate never goes to the root question. I really don't care about Tomlin and Canada's coaching decisions regarding KP. The fundamental issue is that the Steelers and others missed on their scouting of KP.

KP just wasn't a first round QB. He is a mid round guy that you hope can hang out on your roster for a bit and then develop into something useful. The team just bungled that initial evaluation. Everything else flows from that.

 

The difference is Rudolph has had a lot of years and multiple chances to do something with it. He has mostly been with the Steelers and his chances have come while being with the same team and having a full understanding of the offense.

Rudolph got a couple chances to be the guy. All he had to do was beat out Duck Hodges when Ben was out and couldn't do it. He got his last chance to start before Pickett even finished his second season. That was Pickett's last game as a real starter for a team. The game they started Rudolph over him and then rode him through the playoff loss.

You just aren't seeing everything a quarterback is capable of when his last start is before he even completes his second season.

 

To your point. Even if Pickett does become a starter again....unless he becomes a very good starting quarterback, his team is always going to be looking for the quarterback with a higher ceiling to replace him. It's the nature of the beast with guys that aren't ridiculously talented. They have to be great for teams not to look for the next, more talented quarterback.

 

If You can stay in the NFL, You will get better if you work at it, until your body starts betraying you, you are totally correct, but the problem is how much better, and I can't really see a guy like Pickett getting enough better that his lack of what he doesn't have will be not a factor.
You are correct guys like Purdy, Brady, and even Montana didn't have the strongest arms, or measurables, but they had the quick process, and knowledge pretty dang quickly so they didn't have to have all of that other measurables, and they got better. A guy like Pickett has shown none of that, so while I do think He will get better, I don't think it will ever be enough outside of a backup.

 

But he actually did beat out Duck. Not once, but 3 times.
He bet him out as a starter, and got hurt, they played Duck, and then they brought Mason back too quickly, and Duck took his place only to then have Mason beat him out off the spot again, and then he beat him out again when they decided to keep him, and let Duck go. So he actually beat Duck out 3 times.

 

I don't think he really beat him out. I think the team wanted Rudolph to get the starting position more than Rudolph really earned it. In other words, if it was just close to an even battle, Rudolph was getting the nod.

Rudolph was never able to run with it and give anyone a reason to think he could be the guy.

At least that's my opinion of the situation. They wanted Rudoph to be the guy at the time.