The Pittsburgh Steelers have publicly acknowledged the fact that Ben Roethlisberger won't be their quarterback forever. General manager Kevin Colbert even recently said that Big Ben's next contract would likely be his last with the team.
The Steelers have been proactive in searching for a potential replacement, drafting both Josh Dobbs and Mason Rudolph in the middle rounds the past couple of years. Rudolph was the third-string quarterback last year, and we didn't hear much from him after the Steelers took him in the third round out of Oklahoma State.
It's hard to gauge what the Steelers think of him internally, and some fans have begun to wonder whether Pittsburgh would consider dealing him if they view Dobbs as the better long-term option. But that's apparently not going to happen.
“No,” Gerry Dulac of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette answered flatly when asked if trading Rudolph is a possibility.
Dulac thinks the Steelers need to evaluate what Rudolph can do in a “real game” before making a decision on him. Rudolph was the 76th overall pick last year, but wasn't active for a single game.
Dobbs was reportedly on the roster bubble last season and the Steelers considered trading him, but they ultimately decided to cut Landry Jones and keep Dobbs as the primary backup. It seems like Rudolph will be back in Pittsburgh for at least another year. If he can have a strong training camp and preseason and beat out Dobbs for the backup job, he could begin to position himself as the heir apparent to Roethlisberger.
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