Steelers’ Thursday night QB rotation

An intelligent well thought response is requested @Joel Buchsbaum

 

I get that it seems that way. And I think it probably would be closer to the truth if we didn't have a big overhaul in the coaching staff.

Presumably, we'll be more aggressive offensively (hard to be less aggressive).

On offense, we'll probably "play to win" than we have in the past...where we were probably playing not to beat ourselves for most of the game in the hopes that we could then close out close games at the end. I think we had one of the better records in the league in close games in recent years...which is better than what people would assume from our talent.

We'll likely play more to win on offense under MM. This maybe gives us a better chance to develop QBs (hopefully). But it's also likely to lead to more mistakes. And more "beating ourselves".

It's probably a better strategy when you have a better QB. And maybe also true when you're trying to develop a QB (and you don't necessarily care about this year's record).

But it's probably not a strategy where you can sign a guy like Duck off the street and have him go 3-3 in the NFL.

Hopefully it's better in the medium term though!

 

I think it's only really an issue if Rodgers is hurt for a short period of time. Because if he's out for a while, we're probably missing the playoffs anyway.

If we're in a place where we have to start Mason in the playoffs against Mahomes / Allen / Jackson / Burrow / Maye / Nix / Stroud / Lawrence / Herbert / etc., then we're probably cooked (without a DTD or something....although we still got smoked by KC with Ben when we did get a DTD!).

In that case, it's probably better to just play the young guys IMO.

But if we lost Rodgers for something like 1-4 games mid-season, the team will probably want to have Mason around. If it's an average set of 4 games, Mason probably gives us a reasonable chance to win 2-3 games in a 4 game stretch. Where you're probably thinking 1-2 games with one of the mystery boxes.

And if we make the playoffs, the margin will likely be thin. So the difference in a 1-4 game stretch like that between Mason and Howard/Allar could easily be the difference between making and missing the playoffs.

Personally, I'd prefer possible QB development over another WC loss. But my guess is that Rooney feels the exact opposite way.

 

Mason Rudolph's last win as a Steeler was 3 years ago against Tyler Huntley and the rest of Raven's backups. Since then he has started 7 NFL games and lost 6 of them. He is not a short term, mid term or long term answer at QB.

 

McCarthy and company are putting on a clinic on how to run a QB competition. There's a lot of coaches who attempt to run QB competitions, however many of them screw it up. This one is being handled shrewdly thus far.

First off none of the QBs were poor in the first preseason outing, which demonstrates they're getting excellent coaching and preparation. Allar in particular has made a lot of strides with his mechanics, which I found very surprising on top of that. But right out the gate the coaching deserves credit for sure.

Secondly the changes made going into the next game show a decisive and immediate reward for Allar for being the best QB on the field. And while none of them were poor, he was certainly the best of them, and now he's going to jump Howard, which puts major heat on him. Using results as your metric is the way.

As simple as this is, what it does is it sets up the next game to have the most competition from these QBs. They're going to be more prone to push the envelope. Especially Howard, who is not going to be able to dink and dunk his way out of this by throwing screens and pop passes and hoping for explosive runs by the backs. Now if by some miracle Allar continues playing how he did then they may start thinking "why not make the kid the QB2?" And it is a possibility, since they could cut the other two and know at least one of them will be available to move to the PS.

But either way going into the next game we have a lot to look forward to just with this QB room. This is fun.

 

He did lose games on a team that was trying to lose games.

His record with the Steelers is 8-5-1. Though this was under the previous coaching regime with a "try not to lose" mentality.

• 2019 5-3-0 (certainly helped by great defense this year)
• 2020 0-1-0
• 2021 0-0-1
• 2023 3-0-0 <-- Looked like a low end starter here, which is why he got the job in TEN...where the goal was to lose.
• 2025 0-1-0 (lost his only start 38-31. Across the 5 games he played in: 38/52, 310, 2 TDs, but 2 INTs too)

 

I asked the girl at the gas station for a winning lottery ticket

 

Are you talking about yourself?
Mine was a joke. I throw like a girl. If my throwing strength, and motion was the only thing to use in sports I would have never been able to play anything.
I remember in the 8th grade them asking who would like to play Qb, and I raised my hand with dreams of being the next Bradshaw, two ,or 3 passes later Coach Carmelli said ah no move to the otherside of the field. Then my dreams of being the next Mel Blount started. LoL
Throwing is for sissies. LoL

 

Out of all the Qbs on the team besides Rodgers who have You seen throw TDs in a real NFL game??
Out of all the Qbs on the team besides Rodgers who have you seen actually have a team scheme against them, and they actually win the game??
Out of all the Qbs on the team besides Rodgers who have you ever seen throw tds in a playoff game??
Now with all that said, who do You think a HC that is on his 3rd team because he's been fired from two others is going to want to back up his 42 year old Qb this year??
I would say either Mason, or a different experienced backup Qb.

 

I know in that playoff game Mason threw a killer pick in the end zone that killed all chances of winning the game.

 

Some are afraid to try to be better.....

No risk it,no biscuit

 

We don't live in our fears!

 

I've read a few articles which seem to conclude that he is worth a 2027 5th and 2028 7th. This would be awesome if it comes to fruition. And since the Steelers gambled on the hard 8 (pun intended with the craps bet and AR#8) it won't matter who the back-up is if AR goes down for any length of time.

So get something for him, and roll the dice again with our two youngsters. At least that would be a far better bet than the hard 8.

 

Yeah we never seen a Qb throw a pick in the end zone in the playoffs before. LoL

 

Let's imagine AR gets hurt the first game of the season and Rudolph steps in. He has a reasonable chance to get wins against these teams:

CIN (he's 5-1 career)
CLE
NOR
JAX
BAL (split)
TEN
CAR

That's 7 potential wins, then add +1 if they manage to sweep CLE. That's not a bad season for a backup but won't be good enough for the post season.

 

He wouldn't win against the Jags. So we would finish 6-11 and you think that is a good reason to keep him around? Being 5-1 against the Bengals means that he is 4-9-1 against the rest of the league in his career. One of his wins against the Bengals was because he started the game not because he played well. He was benched at halftime in favor of Duck Hodges who led the team from behind to win the game.

 

I would expect in this circumstance Howard and/or Allar would see a lot of game time and even starts

 

This seems like excellent stakes for an internet bet IMO.

 

I think this is how the Steelers would see it.

In this case, I would much rather just play the kids (and probably suck) if Rodgers gets hurt. We aren't going to do anything in the playoffs even if we get there IMO. Not enough talent on this team to compete in a strong AFC.

But I would have preferred we didn't bring Rodgers back and run with Mason / Howard and draft pick to be named later (who turned out the be Allar). Have a down year before a QB draft that's supposed to be good (although they seem to always say that about next year's class).

I think the combo of bringing back Rodgers and then drafting Allar leaves us in this silly place with the QB position.

 

In 2004, veteran Tommy Maddox went down, Ben Roethlisberger, with no NFL starting experience, came in and went on a win streak like we never saw before.

In 2001, veteran Drew Bledsoe went down, Tom Brady, with no NFL starting experience, came in and went on a win streak like they never saw before.

If Rodgers goes down, I want to see one of the young guys. Mason brings nothing exciting to the table. NFL defenses know what to expect from him. They don't know what to expect from Howard or Allar. Unless we think our O line is so bad, we don't want to sacrifice one of the rookies, I'd rather not see Mason in the rotation.

 

None of these guys are Big Ben or Tom Brady. Could they be? No. So, stop using scenarios that are unrealistic. Don’t make me write this again.

 

if its for a game or two the season is not done. MR would be ideal to come off the bench in that situation.

If Rodgers goes down for the season thats a whole different story.

 

4 out 5 losses while with TEN the opponent scored 30+ pts. That's not Rudolph's fault.

Regardless, it's likely MM gives a few starts to QB3 in this scenario.

 

Ben works here,but Brady doesn't.
Brady was on the team for over a year of practice, and had played 8 preseason games before he ever got a start. Nobody on this team besides Rodgers, and Mason has any of that.
Howard was injured until week 10 last year, and no preseason, and Allar is a rookie. If you add Allar, and Howard together , they won't have the practice, or played in as many preseason games a Brady did before he started