ESPN NFL analyst blasts Mason Rudolph, Pittsburgh Steelers

The biggest question surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason — in addition to who the new general manager will be — is who will replace Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback. One of the in-house candidates is Mason Rudolph, which didn’t sit well with a former Steeler-turned-ESPN analyst.

Speaking on Tuesday’s episode of “Get Up,” Ryan Clark shared his thoughts on Rudolph as Pittsburgh’s new QB1. He argued the Steelers wouldn’t be playing to win if they chose the former Oklahoma State quarterback over other potential free agents or trade targets.

Greenberg asked Clark, who played for Pittsburgh from 2006-13, what he’d say if Rudolph started for Pittsburgh Week 1. He didn’t hold back.

“That the Pittsburgh Steelers have failed as an organization,” Clark said. “If Mason Rudolph is the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers entering 2022, they are no longer the Pittsburgh Steelers I love or the fans of Pittsburgh love. They’re no longer the team that decides every offseason, ‘We are going to try and compete for a championship. That we feel like the roster that we have constructed is championship-worthy and championship-ready.’

“Mason Rudolph, no doubt, is 5-4-1 as a starter. The defense also averaged giving up only 13 points in the five games that they won, which means if a team scores more than 13 points when Mason Rudolph is the quarterback, [Pittsburgh is] going to lose.”

Ryan Clark: ‘Mason Rudolph is a very average NFL quarterback’

Rudolph continued to share his stance on Rudolph as a starter, and didn’t mince words about his ceiling in the NFL.

“Mason Rudolph is a very average NFL quarterback,” Clark said. “Not an average NFL starter. An average NFL quarterback. He has shown that, and sometimes, we have to be able to say we were wrong. Sometimes we have to be able to say that that first-round grade we had on that guy was wrong, which was probably why throughout the first 64 picks in the first two rounds, nobody else picked him either because he wasn’t that dang good.

“And this is not a situation where I want to bash Mason Rudolph. But we have to look at the film and realize what the film says. This isn’t a guy that can beat Lamar Jackson. This isn’t a guy that can beat Joe Burrow. And he certainly can’t compete with the Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allens and Justin Herberts of the world. So if this is what the Pittsburgh Steelers are doing, they’re saying that in 2022, we do not want to win a championship.”