Rudolph looks lost

Let's face it, you all are wondering whether Mason can take us to the SB this year. That in itself is a huge compliment.

 

For me I am in a wait and see before I make a determination of what I think about Mason. I like what I have seen from him. He has work to do but he is pretty confident in the pocket and seems to have good vision of the field. Perhaps where he lacks will improve over time. Some of this is playcalling and some is because he is very new. He has won games and thats all we want.

 

Yeah agreed but it's not like we have not seen Ben running around trying to stretch out a play only to throw an INT or get sacked for losses. Mason knows the mistake he made and he should improve. I dont think the Oline is doing as good of a job for him as they do for Ben but I digress

 

If your pit crew can't get the engine to run right, it's kinda hard to evaluate the driver!

Randy Fuchtner is a liability!

 

Hey AQL.

The whole team is a coaching issue. I just think that the three top coaching administrators: HC, OC, and DC are operating on the same lack of tactical knowledge. There really is none of the three that separate themselves from one another. It is if you ask one a question and they look down the line at each other waiting for the other to give the answer. STEELWINDS

 

There is another famous QB on this team that does that lol

 

Ben did not suck his first year. He didn't have to do a lot and his stats were below average but that was because he only threw it about 270 times that year. Easily the lowest for a starting QB in the NFL. But, when needed he showed it and we all saw it. We saw he had the tools to be a franchise QB pretty quickly.

Rudolph? Not so much. In fact the more he plays the more skeptical I'm becoming, not less. Meaning his ceiling may be good backup and not quality starter.

His decision making is a tad slow. His arm and release are average. His accuracy is not NFL quality. Receivers are having to reach for balls a lot.

Not saying he won't improve and I'm just a dumb fan, but from my recliner I don't see anything close to what I remember seeing with Ben even early on.

 

100% agree

 

I was a fan of Mason but I see no real progress in his game. Either that or the OC has him on a very, very short leash.

 

The colts have a pretty good D , our O-line is beginning to crack ,our OC sucks , we only have 1 receiver who's getting double teamed. Our RB's are injured. I still like the kid , Ben is probably telling him on the sideline to hold it longer.

 

Same I've had to temper my expectations a bit. So I'll just hang back and hope it gets better, but there are still times every game where I go, oh there it is, do more of that.

 

Alright everyone! As promised, here is Lamar's updated stats. Results will be below:


Lamar Jackson: 1813 yards. 12TDs/5INTs. 95.4 Rating



Overall and, again, in comparison, Mason is doing very well with his class. Nothing is set in stone yet. Mason needs to get better without question but is showing progress. For his progress to organically expedite, Randy REALLY needs to trust him in addition to Wide Receivers executing their assignments (looking at you JuJu).

 

You can tell the ones who didnt experience Bradshaw to Ben....those type of QBs dont come along every 2 yrs.

 

Ben had Bettis, Fast Willie and Kreider
Mason has a Conner/Samuel/Snell rotation and Nix

 

Ben had much better players around him and coaches. Rudolph is starting from scratch. Average players and horrible coaches.

 

Didn't score enough. Everyone knows it. He needs to score more.

 

Mason's problem if you can call it one is that he has sensory overload and he hasn't caught up to NFL game speed yet. There are people on the thread talking about Ben's first season and how they saw it, they just knew he had it. Ben's first season they limited the amount of field he had to look at and made sure he understood the plays, then you had the added bonus that he could motor(not like a Lamar Jackson but he had some getup for a big guy) and that surprised defenses as he ran for first downs. If you go back and watch the safety play yesterday where MR is strip sacked it shows what I am talking about. It was 3rd and manageable in a very dangerous spot, they gave him a bunched set on the left and Samuel as the side car on the right. In that situation they should have given him a primary read like the nearest receiver as the two furthest drive the coverage back while the third runs and out to the sideline or a slant towards the 1st down. If it isn't there then Samuel on dump off thats it. It should be a three step drop and boom ball out or thrown away.

What happened was they gave him all the options and let him go through his progressions. The problem is he doesn't do it instantly and by the time he goes through them guys are covered, in the wrong spot for a throw, or he is moving out of the pocket and can't make the play as called. There is just to much going on and letting him make the choice is leading to some poor throws and some bad plays. I'm all for opening up the play book when he has gotten enough experience to open it up. Until that time tell him the play and make it work.

Before I get responses about WR's not getting open and no true number one receiver please explain Cooper Kupp and whether or not he is an elite next level WR. The Rams scheme to put him in situations where he can catch the ball and make plays. Right now the Steelers aren't game planning to get guys isolated and open, they are doing what they do, if they get open they get open if not then check down charlie.

 

I didn’t think Rudolph looked great yesterday but he also wasn’t a disaster. Long-term I don’t know if he has the arm to really succeed in the NFL. Same goes for Duck. They’re both solid for young QBs, but I’m not sure either has real starter potential. The Steelers don’t have much choice but to ride this out this year.

It doesn’t help that Rudolph has a poor running game, mediocre receivers (at best) and a defence that’s good but not dominant. You can’t really compare him to Ben in his first year. That Steelers team just ran the ball down other teams’ throats with Bettis. And they could afford to do that because the D back then gave up very little.

 

Leaders make everyone else around them better. Ben had it early & Mason yet to be determined.

 

Ok sorry for the insult not sure how I did that, I wasn't trying to that was why I added the smiley face and I still have no clue about the "air yards" stat.

 

Ben also had a very good/great defense around him as well. I feel we are on the way to being a very good defense right now.

 

I dont quite think you remember Ben's rookie year....he was 14-1 and lost the AFC championship game....the next year he won the Super Bowl....yes Ben was a game manager his rookie season as well....there is a learning curve in the NFL and most teams will give their young inexperienced QB's a year or 2 to show progress , promise and growth. If Mason doesnt continue to grow ( I think he will ) the Steelers may look for another QB at some point, but right now the kid shows a LOT of promise.

 

Okay, but the coaches need to play to win, not play to not loose like they did against the Colts. All they needed to ice the game is get a first down, what do we do, run up the middle with Samuels 3 times with no gains. Play calling was horrible that series.

 

I agree with this for the most part. In fact, I have the "2004, A Remarkable Run" DVD about the 2004 season, and my son and I just watched it again a couple of days ago, and it brought back memories of just how well Ben played for being a rookie at the time.

The difference with Mason is that when Ben came in, it was for Maddox, who I didn't have a whole lot of confidence in at the time. So because we were expecting Maddox to play all year early on, Ben came in and exceeded our expectations.

Now, however, we're seeing the opposite. We had a HOF caliber QB in Ben and we've been used to his level of play. He went down and we have a QB who is going to have lesser quality play, but we're hoping to see what we saw with Ben. The situation is reversed, and while I hope MR will improve, he's a drop in quality compared to Ben, while Ben was a step up from Maddox.