Steelers' Mike Tomlin: 'We are gonna leave the ball in Mason Rudolph’s hands'

With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season on the line, Mason Rudolph will make a third consecutive start at quarterback.

“We are gonna leave the ball in Mason Rudolph’s hands,” coach Mike Tomlin said during his weekly news conference Monday, referencing his intention to start Rudolph in Saturday’s regular-season finale at the Baltimore Ravens.

“He’s done a good job, and we’ve done a good job in the most recent two weeks.”

Tomlin acknowledged that Kenny Pickett was healthy enough to play in Sunday’s game at the Seattle Seahawks but that he made the decision to start former QB3 Rudolph in a game in which the Steelers were desperately desiring a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Pickett was a designated inactive with Mitch Trubisky backing up Rudolph in what was a 30-23 victory.

It was the fourth consecutive game Pickett missed since undergoing ankle surgery after suffering an injury during a Dec. 3 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Trubisky started the first two but was benched for Rudolph, who has produced arguably the best two-game stretch of offensive output for the Steelers in years. Rudolph has completed 35 of 51 passes for 564 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions in victories against the Cincinnati Bengals (34-11 on Dec. 23) and Sunday.

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“We’ve taken care of the ball, he’s taken care of the ball,” Tomlin said. “We’ve scored points at a rate at which we hadn’t done to this point this year. And with the urgency of the moment and because of those reasons, we’re going to leave the ball in his hands.”

The move is seismic considering Pickett was the Steelers’ first-round pick last season. While his statistics have been among the worst of NFL starters, Pickett has shown a penchant for leading fourth-quarter comebacks. Among those are during each of the past two games against Baltimore — Jan. 1 of last season and this past Oct. 8.

“I say all those (complimentary) things (about Rudolph) with the understanding that I know Kenny is very capable, and particularly as it pertains to this matchup,” Tomlin said. “Kenny has led us to victory late in the game the last two times we played Baltimore, so we feel like we have two capable guys and we will proceed into the week the same way we did last week but just knowing that his availability is less in question.”

Each of the past two weeks, Pickett was listed on the injury report as a limited participant at practice each day. This past week on Friday, Pickett was deemed questionable to play against the Seahawks.

In other injury news, Tomlin said that inside linebacker Elandon Roberts (pectoral), safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick (knee) Trenton Thompson (neck) and outside linebacker T.J. Watt (undisclosed) would be evaluated throughout the practice week. Tomlin said Watt — who returned to Sunday’s game after briefly leaving it — is expected to play Saturday. The other three each have missed at least one game.