The early returns based off performance over the first 10 days of Pittsburgh Steelers training camp suggest Mason Rudolph has been the best quarterback at Saint Vincent.
That doesn’t mean he is the most likely to start the Steelers’ regular-season opener. And, according to at least one sports betting site, Rudolph isn’t under the least bit of consideration.
SportsBetting.ag on Friday updated its odds for the Week 1 starter for four NFL teams that are staging training-camp competitions at the position. The sportsbook lists veteran free-agent signee Mitch Trubisky as the heavy favorite (-250) to start Sept. 11 at the Cincinnati Bengals. Kenny Pickett has considerably worse odds as a second choice at +170.
(The odds represent the return on a $100 wager for a “+” number and how much would need to be risked to win $100 on a “-“ bet; that means a bettor would need to place $250 to win $100 if Trubisky starts Week 1 and would win $170 if they bet $100 that Pickett would).
Perhaps most notable about the listed odds, though, is who isn’t listed at all: Rudolph, who is off the board.
Rudolph is in his fifth season with the Steelers and has started 10 games over the past two years, going 5-4-1. He was a third-round pick in 2018, while Pickett was taken in the first round this spring and Trubisky was the No. 2 overall pick of the Chicago Bears in 2017. Trubisky was the starter in Chicago for the majority of his first four seasons but spent last year as a backup with the Buffalo Bills.
In other QB battles, SportsBetting.ag designates Baker Mayfield a considerable favorite (-1500) over Sam Darnold (+600) to win the Carolina Panthers’ job and Marcus Mariota (-1200) likewise a significantly more likely pick to be the Atlanta Falcons’ starter than rookie Desmond Ridder (+550). For the Seattle Seahawks, WVU product Geno Smith (-175) has a slight odds edge over Drew Lock (+135).
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