Mason Rudolph won his first start coming back from injury in the Steelers 27-14 win over the Dolphins on Monday night at Heinz Field. He's won his last two starts in games which he's finished, but there are plenty of aspects of his game that need polishing.
We take a closer look at his mistakes and where he quickly improved on Monday night:
Rudolph finished his night completing 20 of 36 passes for 251 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Back after his first win over the Bengals, I wrote about how Rudolph had to improve his vision to make the next steps in his progression.
His vision did improve slightly against the Dolphins, with the caveat that he was still slow on seeing the open receivers in Randy Fichtner's play calls. Timing on his throws are just as important as seeing the field. The Steelers needed some play action passes to take advantage of defenses jumping all over their run game.
So when Fichtner dialed up play action in the first quarter, he got that response from the Dolphins. They play with a single high safety and on the fake handoff he bites ten yards in, giving up his deep responsibilities. Meanwhile Donte Moncrief dusts his man to be wide open for what should be a touchdown.
But Rudolph doesn't see Moncrief until it's far too late and throws a pass that leads him out of bounds:
That result came from Rudolph taking too long to work through his progressions. He obviously had underneath primary reads and didn't look up to Moncrief until his route progressed too far to the sideline. But Rudolph also struggled on timing with routes he focused on for an entire play.
Watch how badly JuJu Smith-Schuster beat Ken Crawley with a hook route. Crawley had inside leverage, yet Smith-Schuster sets him up with a double move that takes away that leverage and presents an easy target for Rudolph. But not only is the ball seconds late, it's off target, giving Crawley the chance to break it up:
But as the game continued, Rudolph's timing improved. The ball started coming out of his hand at the right time but he would miss the passing window. That happens a lot with young quarterbacks who haven't polished their mechanics.
Accuracy often varies when quarterbacks don't have a strong combination of consistent footwork that leads to a throw from off their front foot, or their throwing motion. Rudolph's arm movement is better than most rookies, but one thing I noticed was how he wasn't putting his full weight on his front foot when throwing at times.
Watch how he misses short on this deep ball to Smith-Schuster, who beat Xavien Howard off the ball on a go route. If the ball leads Smith-Schuster, he most likely has a touchdown, but it forces him to come back for the ball and is on his inside shoulder. That gives Howard a better play on the ball than Smith-Schuster, resulting in an incomplete pass:
If you look closely, you can see Rudolph working through his throwing mechanics and not put his full weight forward before he releases. These are the things that can be ironed out with NFL experience and professional coaches over the early years of a quarterback's career.
The good news is that Rudolph does flash the right mechanics at times. This means there is a chance that inconsistency can change if he continues to work on his mechanics. Dale Lolley wrote yesterday about the chemistry between Rudolph and Smith-Schuster improving. Here's that deep touchdown where Rudolph threw to Smith-Schuster perfectly on a go route.
He's not wide open, but the passing window for a jump ball was available and he put it in the right spot for Smith-Schuster to win. He also does throw off the front foot, making for a better pass.
But what also impressed me about this play was Rudolph's head movement. Notice how the Dolphins have a single high safety again and where Rudolph looks to start the play. He starts by looking to his right, dragging the safety away from Smith-Schuster. As soon as the safety moves, he switches to his true target and fires, ensuring Smith-Schuster has a one-on-one chance:
Time will tell how Rudolph embraces the series of challenges that face players who want to be franchise quarterbacks. But coming back from a 14-0 deficit is a great sign he has the fight to at least combat these challenges and not back down from setbacks.
Keep a close eye on his development against the Colts and where his reads and mechanics have progressed or stagnated.
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