Former Steelers QB Charlie Batch Poses Interesting Question To Steeler Nation Regarding Mason Rudolph

The Pittsburgh Steelers' 2023 season has experienced a remarkable resurrection. It was at around Week 14 and 15 when they lost to three very beatable teams in a row. It appears that the catalyst for change was longtime backup and third-string quarterback Mason Rudolph. Rudolph officially took over as the starter for the Week 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. His promotion came after second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett sustained an ankle injury during their Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Now, one former Steelers quarterback is expressing his surprise over how Rudolph is turning the team around.  

During his two starts this season, Rudolph has led the Steelers to score 30 or more points for the first time in over a year. He has thrown for 564 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions in the games he started against the Seattle Seahawks and the Bengals. 

Former Steelers' 11-year backup quarterback Charlie Batch knows the team well and Rudolph well. After he retired from football in 2012, Batch began a career in NFL analysis, including working for KDKA. This has allowed him to stay well-connected with the team and the players.  

Steelers' Charlie Batch Is Surprised By Mason Rudolph's Success

Recently, Batch appeared on a Baltimore-centric show called Glenn Clark Radio. On the episode, the group discussed the upcoming final game of the season between the Baltimore Ravens and the Steelers. 

The show's two hosts, Glenn Clark and Griffin Bass, asked Batch about Rudolph's meteoric rise in success, as well as what he thinks the future will hold for a player who wasn't sure if he would be selling real estate or throwing footballs in 2024 a few weeks ago. Batch admitted he was surprised, but just how well he has done when he was asked why we hadn't seen Rudolph earlier this season.  

"That's the question that's going on a lot around here and of course, it shocked a lot of people including myself because there's no way that I expected the numbers to be what they are. I expected Mason to do okay, I just didn't expect them to do their back-to-back 30-point games. I think this is shocking for everybody and it leads to the question, how come Mason wasn't in there from the beginning?"

Clark and Bass note that the Steelers' season seemed dead in the water after Mitch Trubisky dropped two consecutive games. It wasn't like the Steelers fought hard and just got beat by a superior team, they didn't seem to really try. The offense could not move the ball at all and the defense was beaten down from spending so much time on the field trying to make something happen. 

While no one outside of the team really knows the exact thought process that determined that Trubisky would go back under center, Batch has enough years with the team to offer insights. 

"When you look at the decision that was made a few years ago, to say, 'Okay, is Mason Rudolph the future,' at that point, the organization said, 'No' because they brought Ben Roethlisberger back. Then the year that he retired, they brought Mitch Trubisky to compete with Mason Rudolph, which he was okay with. Then you draft Kenny Pickett. They drafted a quarterback in the seventh round [Chris Oladokun], and if Dwayne Haskins was still around, he would still be on the roster as well competing. So he was really thrown by the wayside, but stayed the course and waited for his opportunity and low and behold, it's here," elaborated Batch.

Batch firmly believes that Rudolph is playing for his professional career, whether it is in Pittsburgh or another city. He said if he stays in the Steel City, he will definitely "muddy the waters" of the quarterback decision next year. He fully expects Trubisky to move on during the offseason, but said it is not clear what else will happen. 

Rudolph could well get a Geno Smith-type of contract from another team, said Batch, but that will depend in large part on how he performs in Week 18. Is his recent success just a fluke? It certainly is not the player we once saw benched for Devlin Hodges.