With his play the past two weeks, Mason Rudolph has put himself in position to earn a measure of job security next season when he hits free agency for the second time in his NFL career.
Rudolph isn’t looking that far ahead. Not with the Pittsburgh Steelers trying to secure one of the two remaining wild-card berths in the AFC.
His sights are set exclusively on the Steelers’ game Saturday afternoon at the Baltimore Ravens when he will make his third consecutive start at quarterback.
“All we can control is our performance and whether we win or lose,” Rudolph said Tuesday. “We have tunnel vision on that, and the rest of the chips fall where they fall.”
Rudolph said he isn’t caught up in the run the Steelers have made since he replaced Mitch Trubisky and an injured Kenny Pickett as the starter. He has led the Steelers to back-to-back wins against Cincinnati and Seattle to give them a 9-7 record heading into the finale.
“We’re used to each week being so important,” he said. “Obviously, we know this one is. Last week was, too. The week before that. We’re not going to overpressure ourselves or make the moment bigger than it is. We all have a sense of urgency.”
The clearest path for the Steelers to make the playoffs is to beat the Ravens on Saturday and then have Jacksonville lose at Tennessee on Sunday afternoon or Buffalo lose at Miami on Sunday night.
“I think it’s better that we just play the game Saturday and then watch Sunday,” he said. “If we do our job right, the games on Sunday, obviously, will mean more.”
If the Steelers make the playoffs, it will be, in part, because of Rudolph’s performance down the stretch. His start two weeks ago against Cincinnati was his first in more than two years. But in back-to-back games, he has led the Steelers to 34 and 30 points, respectively, a milestone they haven’t reached in consecutive weeks since 2020.
Rudolph insists he’s not looking back or beyond what awaits Saturday.
“I try not to be too reminiscent or smell the roses,” he said. “I have reps again today in practice, which was awesome, and I’ll do it the rest of the week. I’ll look back on all of those things in a few months.”
