Benched? Mike Tomlin Reveals Why He’s Starting Mason Rudolph Over Kenny Pickett

Mike Tomlin is starting Mason Rudolph on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, which means Kenny Pickett will sit. But was he benched, or is he just injured? In his weekly chat with Bob Labriola, Tomlin revealed that Pickett is in a much better place this week, but he thought it was pertinent to give Rudolph a chance to grow on what he did a week ago.

“Mason played a really good game, and we want to give him an opportunity to maybe build upon that and us to build upon that. That was the reason why we inserted him into the lineup,” Tomlin said. “You know, we weren’t going to continue to do similar things and hope for a different result. We needed to produce more points, score more touchdowns. We were able to do that, and so I’m excited about the prospects of seeing what we can do in his second outing.”

Tomlin hinted that Pickett could play with the injury. But that is not the decision simply because Mason Rudolph played at such a high level. It’s a must-win game against the Seahawks. And it seems that Tomlin’s feeling is the best player that gives them a chance to win is Rudolph.

“I think he’s in a significantly better position. I don’t know the seriousness of the consideration (of him playing) a week ago. He’s in a much better place now,” Tomlin said.

Rudolph finished the game against the Bengals with 290 yards on 17 of 27 passing, two touchdowns and no interceptions. His 124 passer rating was a career high and the highest for a Steelers quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger in 2018. Rudolph has to step up in a big way to keep the performance up, but other backups have done it all season. He could be the next in line to continue the run of high-level play from backups, even if the shelf life on that is generally short.