Steelers' Ramon Foster Said It Is Undeniable That Mason Rudolph Brought Something Kenny Pickett Didn't, And It Is Not Just Wins

The Pittsburgh Steelers' season seemed to be over when starting quarterback Kenny Pickett went down with a high ankle sprain during the Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Second-string quarterback Mitch Trubisky came in and lost that game, as well as the next two, all but ending the Steelers' hopes of any kind of playoff run. So they might've thought. Then Head Coach Mike Tomlin made the bold decision to bench Trubisky and start long-time Pittsburgh backup Mason Rudolph. Few people believed Rudolph could turn this team around, but most agreed anything was better than Trubisky. 

Somehow, Rudolph did turn this team around, helping the Steelers win their last three games of the regular season and squeaking into the playoffs. However, it was more than just the wins, it was the way the team looked and felt. They seemed like a rejuvenated group, even the defense and special teams improved with the hope that Rudolph brought them. 

Throughout it all, Rudolph was humble about what he brought to the table. When asked by the media, he gave the credit to his fellow teammates. After the loss of the Wild Card game to the Buffalo Bills, Rudolph shared with the media that the group celebrated each win together during those games. This led former Steelers offensive guard Ramon Foster to comment that he saw leadership from Rudolph that he wasn't seeing from Pickett. 

Steelers' Mason Rudolph Brought Something New To The Table

Foster and Rudolph played together for a couple of seasons as their careers overlapped. He has been an outspoken champion of the much-maligned quarterback and his abilities. Foster now co-hosts a podcast with Pittsburgh sports reporter Dejan Kovacevic that airs on DK Pittsburgh Sports, called The Ramon Foster Show. On a recent episode, Foster and Kovacevic were asked about Rudolph's leadership. 

Kovacevic said that after the Bills game, he asked Rudolph about his future with the team and Rudolph would not give anyone a direct answer, saying he just isn't sure. He shared a video that he took of Rudolph during that interview where the quarterback gets quite emotional when Kovacevic pins him down on his contributions to the team over the past few weeks. He still resisted taking any credit for himself.

"When I got back and look at the totality of the tape, I'll get a better feel for it [the loss], but I think the plan was to come here and get the win and we fell short to a great team. I was proud of what we as an offense put on tape these last few weeks. The way we celebrated, the way guys cheered for each other, whether the run game was working, whether the receivers were rolling, it was just that we had chemistry, we had belief, love for one another," shared Rudolph.

Both Kovacevic and Foster agreed that this was a powerful statement from the leader of the offense. Foster said it speaks to who Rudolph is as a leader. 

"The fact that he was able to draw that out of those dudes and it seems to me that hasn't been on the field. Let's talk about just the field aspect of it. I saw him keep George [Pickens] calm on one of those incompletions. He walked over to George and had a conversation with him. it sounds like we're dogging Kenny [Pickett] in a sense, either way, I don't think we've ever seen Kenny do that in that fashion. To be a big enough leader to have the hand over the mouth conversation that he had with George, with Diontae [Johnson]."

While they both acknowledge that Pickett is younger, this is only his second season in the NFL, and both maintain that giving Rudolph credit is not intended to take away from what Pickett does, they still just see that leadership difference. At another point in the game, Rudolph missed that Diontae Johnson was wide open. He was jumping up and down, according to Kovacevic, and waving his arms. After the play, Rudolph apologized to him and the next pass that went out went to Johnson. 

Kovacevic said this isn't something that was done to "kiss his rear," but rather to acknowledge that he screwed up. This kind of leadership is what Foster feels the team is missing with Pickett under center. 

"They have no definitive leader on that side, no matter what they say, they hadn't shown it on the field the way you needed to. When the o-line is having a bad day, I don't recall anybody going over there and saying something to them. When the quarterback's head is down, I don't recall somebody calling them up like, 'Hey, we got you.' You didn't see that stuff, but you did with Mason," acknowledged Foster.

Rudolph, who was drafted in the third round in 2018, spent most of his career backing up Ben Roethlisberger. During those years, he got opportunities to play when Roethlisberger was hurt. When Roethlisberger retired at the end of the 2021 season, Rudolph was able to compete for the starting job against Pickett and Trubisky.

What will happen to Rudolph in 2024 is anyone's guess. He certainly played well enough to earn himself a bit more money and at least a backup job somewhere, whether that is in Pittsburgh remains to be seen.