Tim Benz: Words matter when discussing the 'Mason-Andre Rudolph' story

When it comes to discussing the revival story of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph, the words matter.

Or at least they should.

For instance, I keep hearing people say that Rudolph is performing so well because “he’s playing like he’s got nothing to lose.”

Is that really true? I don’t think so.

Rudolph is actually a guy who became the starter with a lot to lose and everything to gain, and that is exactly how he is playing.

“Is the glass half full or half empty? It’s the same as that,” receiver Allen Robinson said of Rudolph. “I’m more of a glass-half-full guy rather than half empty. The guy is playing like he has everything to gain.”

It’s true. We’re talking about a 28-year-old third-string quarterback who is probably getting one last shot at being a starter in the NFL. A player who admitted that he was on the brink of getting into commercial real estate when it looked like no one was going to sign him in free agency last spring.

Now, if Rudolph keeps playing well, he has the opportunity to set himself up for what could be an eight-figure multi-year contract in the league. If he had gotten under center against Cincinnati last month and stunk up the joint, it really may have been commercial real estate this spring.

When I hear about a quarterback who is playing “like he has nothing to lose,” that strikes me as a guy who is taking risks and making low-percentage, high-gamble throws regardless of score, circumstance or down-and-distance. I picture a guy who is passing up the smart throw while trying to pump difficult passes through tight windows.

Rudolph isn’t doing that. He has no interceptions in 74 passes. He was 18 of 20 last week in a monsoon down in Baltimore. He’s not escaping out of the pocket and throwing across his body in hopes of doing a Brett Favre impersonation.

Yes, Rudolph is pushing the ball down the field. But those are exactly the calculated risks that head coach Mike Tomlin wanted Rudolph to take when he elevated him to the starting role.

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The same ones Kenny Pickett rarely did. The same ones Mitch Trubisky could never figure out.

“The environment that he was in (at Baltimore) and what that game was, to go 18 for 20,” offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner said Thursday. “That was a big part of (the win). Being efficient keeping us on schedule and allowing us to continue to stay to our game plan and do the things we wanted to do. Whenever you’ve got somebody doing that, you feel really good about it.”

The other narrative that I think is misleading about Rudolph’s sudden ascent is that he “never really got a shot” during his first five years here.

That’s also not true. He had 10 starts. In the NFL, that’s a shot. Sure, due to injury and many other circumstances, he was dealt a bad hand.

And I’d argue he got a raw deal with how he was sold a false bill of goods about 2022 being an open three-way competition for the starter’s job when it was clearly preordained that Trubisky was going to start, and Pickett was going to be the backup.

Again, though, there’s a difference between a “raw deal” and “never getting a shot.”

In 2019, he got concussed. Then, there was the Myles Garrett incident. When he struggled, the Steelers went to Devlin “Duck” Hodges. Rudolph got hurt in New York in Week 16. There were numerous other injuries to skill position players along the way.

In his lone 2021 start against winless Detroit, there was bad weather and two fumbles from teammates that ended up helping the Lions tie that game.

All true. But Rudolph did get a shot. Not a great one. But that’s a shot. The next time some guy at a bar tells you, “Mason deserved more of a shot,” ask him if Trubisky deserves more of a shot.

Trubisky only has seven starts and 12 games under his belt as a Steeler. Rudolph had 10 starts heading into this season.

Does anyone else out there wanna see more from Trubisky? Raise your hands.

Because I think I’ll see just as few up for ol’ Mitch right now as I did if I had asked that question about Rudolph in the winter of 2022 after Ben Roethlisberger retired.

I can assure you my inbox and social media feeds weren’t exactly packed with messages from Steelers fans insisting that the franchise should avoid signing or drafting a quarterback that spring and that the front office should just hand the reins over to Rudolph as Big Ben’s replacement.

Listening to sports talk radio and seeing social media since Rudolph reemerged on the scene, the revisionist history from Pittsburgh fans has gotten comical. It’s reaching Marc-Andre Fleury levels.

He is fast becoming Mason-Andre Rudolph.

”Yinz know, they never shoulda kept ‘at Matt Murray! I said then they shoulda kept the Flower the whole time and let ‘at guy go!”

Oh, please! No, you didn’t.

Matt Murray was 22 years old, had just won back-to-back Stanley Cups, and cost much less against the salary cap. It was the right move to keep him and ship Fleury to Vegas. Things just didn’t work out.

Plus, half of the “we never shoulda traded Flower folks” are the same people who were booing him off the ice and blaming him exclusively for any Cup they didn’t win between 2010 and 2015.

It’s the same thing now with Rudolph. “They shoulda just started Mason when Ben retired!”

“We’ve all had adversity,” Rudolph said before his first start. “I’ve had a fair share, and I think it’s made me better. It’s made me a better person. I think about some of the things that happened in ‘19, and it was quite a lot, but I’m grateful for that. It has made me a better man and a better leader, and it makes you more battle-tested.”

Regardless, I’m glad Fleury gets the adulation he so frequently does when he comes back to play in Pittsburgh nowadays. And it’s nice to see Rudolph get the support he is currently receiving.

Because this quarterback with “everything to gain” now does have a “shot” to attain one more thing that no Steelers QB has been able to do for the past seven years.

Win a playoff game.

So he deserves to have his story portrayed in the way it’s really happening.

Listen: Tim Benz and WGR’s Sal Capaccio preview the Steelers-Bills playoff game