Why Will Ben Be Successful in the 2020 Campaign?

[Professor Half Wit]

Any backup would be better than Rudolph. Blake Bortles, Matt Moore, Jim Abbott... whoever. There are cheap options.

Again, the Steelers are on a cliff edge with the cap. Certainly there are other options. I don't know that it's obvious that options of quality superior to Mason Rudolph will be willing to to take the kind of coin the Steelers are going to be able to offer once they get their other needs locked up. I'm not a cap aficionado and am not about to take the time to crunch numbers, but we're sure as hell not going to be bringing in a Blake Bortles.

[bradshaw2ben]

I could see a post-draft, min signing for an XFL guy like P.J. Walker or Cardale Jones. I could even see a vet min signing for Laundry Jones .

[Ice]

There will be unemployed veteran quarterbacks laying on couches when training camp opens that are likely better options than what we rolled out last season. The Steelers had done a good job earlier in Ben's career of making sure there was a guy like Batch or Lefty behind him with the capability of being an effective NFL starter. Things took a bad turn in that department with the Laundry experiment, and got progressively worse from there. It really came home to roost last season. The number of different ways this organization has whistled past the graveyard with their QB position since I started to follow (birth in 1983) is really just crazy.

[955876]

Things took a turn because they shifted from employing a capable vet back-up to instead trying to draft late rounders as developmental QBs and hope they could get the job done.

They haven’t been able to draft and even worse develop a single one that’s been worth a damn thus far. Not having a dedicated (and competent) QB coach part of the problem IMO.

Doesn’t bode for the future unless they rank and another top 10 pick falls in their lap.

[PennyBacker]

Any backup would be better than Rudolph. Blake Bortles, Matt Moore, Jim Abbott... whoever. There are cheap options.

Again, the Steelers are on a cliff edge with the cap. Certainly there are other options. I don't know that it's obvious that options of quality superior to Mason Rudolph will be willing to to take the kind of coin the Steelers are going to be able to offer once they get their other needs locked up. I'm not a cap aficionado and am not about to take the time to crunch numbers, but we're sure as hell not going to be bringing in a Blake Bortles.

Rudolph's injury was beneficial for him on 2 fronts.

1) It put Hodges back in and showed that he was clearly trending down by the end of the season.
2) It allowed for him to finish the season looking more like the guy before the Earl Thomas hit, rather then the guy right after he returned from the hit.