May 24, 2022; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks Mitch Trubisky (10) and Mason Rudolph (2) participate in organized team activities at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
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The Pittsburgh Steelers may be so content with Mitchell Trubisky and Kenny Pickett as their top two QBs that they could let Mason Rudolph go.
The Steelers entered training camp with a three-man quarterback battle. It could be down to two within a few short days.
While Mitchell Trubisky and Kenny Pickett appear to have the edge in the race for the starting job, Mason Rudolph has been paired up with the third-string offensive line and could even be on the move.
A recent report suggest Pittsburgh may even trade Rudolph before the week is up.
Steelers rumors: Mason Rudolph could be traded to Lions
“A former NFL GM told me he thinks Mason Rudolph could be traded to the Lions by the end of the week,” Andrew Filipponi tweeted.
That’s an interesting development, especially because Rudolph doesn’t exactly bring huge trade value to the table. It may be Detroit is desperate enough to through good value at Pittsburgh, which would be foolish to ignore.
Still, there is an argument to keep Rudolph in place as a backup plan. As impressive as Pickett looked in the preseason, it was one game and the team may want to let him develop before throwing him into the fire.
Rudolph would be their insurance policy if anything happened to Trubisky. In that case, they wouldn’t be forced to play Pickett until they wanted to.
Brian Batko tweeted from practice that Pickett has firmly moved into the No. 2 spot behind Trubisky after his strong performance in his first preseason game. Rudolph was left with the third team.
So maybe Mike Tomlin and company are getting comfortable with the idea of the rookie being QB2. The answer will come if they do go ahead and trade Rudolph before the end of training camp.