While we highlighted Mason Rudolph's ability to extend plays with his legs and still throw on the run, we would be remiss not to address two key areas of concern he will need to improve to develop in the NFL — reading defenses and using his progressions throughout a play.
As you watch Rudolph's film and highlights, you can see a common trend in how he made his biggest plays during his collegiate success — he would often stick to his primary read and wait for that player to get open instead of processing defenses and finding the easier throw or an open man.
Even on his biggest plays, you can see how Rudolph often stuck to his primary read and just waited for that player to come open. Some of that might be solid pre-snap reads on his part that led to big moments like the one below against Oklahoma.
Watch how Rudolph keeps looking in the same spot for the entire play without his head ever moving. While the ESPN media crew highlighted how his throw came after the middle safety moved from covering the field, Rudolph doesn't influence that player's movement much and just waits for his receiver to get into the final stretch of his post pattern:
That's a good throw on his part, but it's important for a quarterback to have the ability to switch between reads in a given play and be comfortable knowing his teammates' assignments enough to make throws all around the field.
Rudolph's tape does not demonstrate a player who can regularly do that. Even on plays designed to fake a throw to the flat, he would miss his primary read because he wasn't able to stare him down the entire play. Here's an example later against Oklahoma where he faked a screen pass, had an open slot receiver running a slant past the first down marker, and flat out missed him:
When it wasn't a designed second read, Rudolph struggled to come off his first read and process the defense at times. Here's a moment in the red zone against Texas where he stuck to his first read of a slant without recognizing that his fullback was wide open in the flat for an easy score:
Being able to progress through your reads is a skill that takes time to develop and is still lost on many quarterbacks who make it into the NFL. In fact, it was one Ben Roethlisberger struggled with for several years. The question on Rudolph's progressions is not simply being able to look around and find his targets, but how comfortably he can cycle through them and throw into various coverages.
There were times when Rudolph did display the potential to overcome this problem, even in plays not featured in his highlights. Here's another play from that game against Oklahoma when Rudolph used a pump fake to move a safety and then waited for his receiver to come open on a crossing pattern.
Rudolph made the right read and throw, but the receiver dropped the pass and it ended up getting intercepted:
If I'm Randy Fichtner, I would want Rudolph working on being comfortable in going through his reads and targeting receivers without staring them down. The Steelers have some years with Roethlisberger in command for Rudolph to work on this, so that may be the perfect situation.
Rudolph definitely has the size and athleticism to be a good quarterback in the NFL, as well as the mental toughness to not give up on a play when his first option is taken away. But beyond not giving up is the need for a player to be able to use all the resources at his disposal, and the worry about Rudolph is that with the multiple athletic receivers he had at Oklahoma State, including new Steelers receiver James Washington, Rudolph wasn't able to consistently make those reads.
Again, many of these traits come with time and experience learning in the NFL. Plenty of good quarterbacks, including Roethlisberger, still make mistakes in not going through their progressions properly.
