There was a lot to like from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first preseason game Saturday night. It was a 31-25 victory in Jacksonville. The most obvious positives were the two quarterbacks, as Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson threw a total of four touchdowns and posted a combined 135.5 passer rating.

In this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive says Rudolph proved his worth as Aaron Rodgers’ backup right off the bat.

“Mason Rudolph is a really good NFL quarterback,” Madden said. “I think he could start for a lot of teams. He had a really good night, albeit a brief appearance (two drives). I think the Steelers are lucky to have him, and I think that he’s going to play a big role in this season. I don’t think there’s any way Rodgers starts all 17 games.”

Part of what helped the quarterbacks is that the tackle play held up. After Troy Fautanu played just one game last season, and Broderick Jones struggled on the right side, it seemed like there were some strides forward.

“At least they didn’t (stink). I’m rejoicing. That might be the best we could hope for, especially with Broderick Jones,” Madden said. “They’ve really mangled him and put him in a position to fail. Putting him in (the) wrong position as a rookie and a second-year guy. Making him a swing tackle. Just a lot of things they should not have done when they traded up to draft Jones 14th in 2023.”

One of the few negatives on the offensive side of the ball is that rookie running back Kaleb Johnson didn’t flash in the way many Steelers fans were hoping. He ended up gaining just 20 yards on eight carries. He dropped a pass and seemed to be confused when he stayed in to block instead of leaking out at one point during a sack of Rudolph.

“He got to the hole pretty fast when it was there, but when it wasn’t there, he didn’t do much,” Madden said. “But he’d still be my guy. I’d let him learn on the fly. (Jaylen) Warren ain’t it.”

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Madden doesn’t want to see Johnson buried behind Warren and Kenneth Gainwell on the running back depth chart just because he might be dealing with a rookie learning curve.

“They just don’t want to ever let rookies learn on the fly,” Madden said. “Like (Derrick) Harmon? They’ve got to on the defensive line because there’s really nobody else there. But they just don’t want to let them figure it out as they go along. I wonder if they don’t suffer for that with that general organizational philosophy.”

In some recent cases, that has been true. Jones, Kenny Pickett, Keeanu Benton and Joey Porter Jr. needed a few weeks (or longer) behind other players before getting starting jobs. But Zach Frazier, Najee Harris, George Pickens, Kendrick Green and Pat Freiermuth are all recent examples of players who were either immediate starters or rookies who took on lots of playing time. Last year, they wanted to start Fautanu out of the gate, but couldn’t because of injury. Plus, Mason McCormick and Beanie Bishop were thrust into high-leverage roles much earlier than expected.

Speaking of Bishop, Madden and I also talked a lot about him, Brandin Echols and Cole Holcomb on defense. We got into great depth on the contractual situations surrounding Cameron Heyward and Chris Boswell. Then we discussed the pie-in-the-sky rumors about Paul Skenes perhaps getting a contract extension offer from the Pirates.

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