Welcome to Brian Batko’s Steelers mailbag. You can submit your questions to Brian directly @BrianBatko on X and bbatko@post-gazette.com.
Tim from Charlotte: Mason Rudolph is once again a Pittsburgh Steeler, my friend. Since you don't have the time, or probably the desire to read comments about his return from Steeler fans, they are mostly very positive. I must admit he is a very likable young man and again I'm pulling for him. His stats go: 28 touchdowns to 20 interception, total yards 4,615 and rating of 84.7. Not exactly numbers to get you in to the Hall of Fame, right? Yet, here he has a huge fan base and we want to see him do very well. I believe the AFC teams are all chasing Kansas City, Buffalo, and Baltimore for a good amount of time now and as of writing this, Aaron has not decided to bless us with his services. So you roll with Rudolph and spend money in the trenches to build around until the next Ben shows up. Get Rudolph a backup and let the chips fall where they may. Higher draft pick in the following draft at worst and a maybe playoff win with Rudolph. The organization seems content for now with just getting over the 500 mark and Mason could keep that going for just 4 million dollars. Feel free to correct my thinking, as I do tend to think with my heart and not facts. Thank you for your time and knowledge Brian!
Brian: Hello, Tim. I don’t always read all the comments, but I think I’m in tune enough to grasp the general sentiment from the fan base on matters such as this.
The funny thing about Mason Rudolph at this juncture of his career is he’s likely more appealing to the Steelers than any other team and he’s more valuable to the Steelers than any other team. And from Rudolph’s perspective, let’s be honest — rightly or wrongly — there’s been a lack of leaguewide interest in him for years now.
Ergo, the Steelers — and what they offered — surely were more enticing to him than any other situation. That’s how you get this deal being done last Thursday, mere hours after that Thursday’s mailbag went online.
We haven't seen Rudolph in Arthur Smith’s offense, but last time we watched him as a Steeler, he was playing pretty good football. On top of that, I believe there’s something to be said for the good vibes that come with his presence.
Cam Heyward put it out there on his podcast, but I already knew Rudolph is well liked in that locker room. He’s an easygoing guy to begin with and he’s been humbled time and again. I get the sense players who know his story respect how he’s handled it all.
That also probably makes him an easy mark for the Steelers to go out and use a draft pick on a quarterback. But hey, Rudolph isn’t naive. He knows the game and what he’s signing up for in that respect. There are only 32 starting quarterback jobs in the NFL.
Bob S: In a post-season press conference, AR2 said he wanted to have quarterbacks with the same skill set. If we end up with Russ Wilson or Aaron Rojers, whom do we get for the other 2 positions?
Brian: Not the best spelling of Aaron Rodgers but a great use of “whom” in the email. Art Rooney II did indeed say he’d like “two quarterbacks who run the same system.”
While I very much agree with that football philosophy, I’m starting to wonder how much stock we should put into the offseason words of Rooney and even Omar Khan, to an extent. Because he also said his preference would be to prioritize signing one of Justin Fields or Russell Wilson. Either the team president didn't get his wish or he was throwing us all off their scent for some reason. Or no one had told him by that point the Wilson souffle had been spoiled by the five-game skid to end last season.
At any rate, Rudolph is in the fold. Logically, that would rule out a Jalen Milroe or Riley Leonard but not much else at this point. And even then, I can’t imagine the Steelers would be so beholden to such an idea of having similar quarterbacks that they’d spike a prospect they really like because they’ve committed to Mason Rudolph (or Rodgers or Kirk Cousins or Joe Flacco or Jameis Winston and so on). Most of the quarterback prospects in this year’s draft are more pocket passer types anyway.
Mike F: I never miss a Coach T press conference on SNR, love the TOMLINISMS, but question I have, why does he always waste time on his “assessment “ of the opponent? Is there an amount of time that he is required to speak to the media so he spends less time taking questions ? Don’t get me wrong , I need all about the 22 minutes depending on traffic traveling home after work HAHA after he speaks during his first segment after speaking about the previous game. We all don’t need to hear how dynamic the superstars are on the other team, we already know that. I must say, it is amazing how he rambles off practically every guy on the other roster WITHOUT ANY NOTES. I do notice how he seems to hate some of the media individual questions with his 1 word responses. I prefer more questions , “not the dumb ones” mind you, than the assessment of the other team
Brian: Hey, there are no dumb questions, right Mike? Mike F, not Mike T ...
But six years in on the Steelers beat, I assume there are a couple of reasons for this. First off, while I’ve never covered another NFL team, it’s my understanding Tomlin has fewer scheduled interviews than any other coach. For instance, John Harbaugh usually talks to media the day after the game, which of course is when he’d tie up any loose ends from the previous performance. He then does another news conference the next day or later in the week, when he turns his focus to the upcoming opponent.
Basically, Tomlin lumps both of those shorter pressers together, so he spends quite some time trying to address upfront any topics that will be brought up by reporters when he’s done with his statement. Now, I’m not going to pretend Tomlin would rather open himself up to what we have to ask for a longer period of time, but it is his way of hitting on what he perceives are the primary subjects from the game before or the game up next.
In defense of both Tomlin and the Steelers, it’s not as if reporters regularly get cut off from additional questions because they ran out of time after so much filibustering on the front end. I don’t believe there is any obligation for how long an NFL coach’s press briefings need to be, but he is technically available as many days as he’s required to be by the Pro Football Writers of America.
Jim R: About how many people does it take to run one typical star player's career? We often hear snippets about nutritionists or media gurus, but how many people does it actually take? And what are some new roles/occupations being created for this purpose? (I'm thinking videographers, social media managers, etc.)
Brian: That answer varies from star player to star player, I’m sure, and there’s no one set number. For instance, a player who’s more interested in marketing himself or securing endorsements is going to be more invested in employing the kind of specialists you mention.
Generally, I’d say just about everyone in the NFL has at least one go-to person for their offseason training. Some emphasize position-specific drills, others weight or speed coaching and certainly many players are doing both. Then you factor in those with chefs, dietitians, even yoga instructors or other wellness experts.
They also often have marketing agencies that could be tied into their contract agents or an entirely separate entity. One new role that more should consider is an individual media liaison, someone who can help them navigate the narratives and separate good publicity from bad publicity. If any highly paid athletes are reading this, have your people call my people!
Ed B: Hey Brian. Hope all is well. I just got done reading your chat today. The last question of the day, The question was "which Steelers opening day quarterback was Mason Rudolph better than, the guy said Kent Graham and that was about it" This guy obviously forgot about the 1996 season when Jim Miller was our starting quarterback, and then Bill Cowher benched him after a terrible first half and went to Mike Tomczak. Rudolph is definitely better than those two.
Brian: And as I said in the chat, he might be better than Kenny Pickett, who started Week 1 in 2023. And he might be better than Mitch Trubisky, who started Week 1 in 2022. And could you even make a case Rudolph now is better than Ben Roethlisberger was in his age-39 season? I won’t necessarily go that far, but either way, the Steelers keep forcing us to wrestle with these unfortunate quarterback quandaries year after year after year.
First Published: March 20, 2025, 8:00 a.m.
Updated: March 21, 2025, 12:01 p.m.
