Pittsburgh has four quarterbacks on the roster heading into Week 1. That math does not work, and the league knows it.
Jason La Canfora, citing NFL executives, reported that the Steelers have been very open to trading Mason Rudolph this preseason. The obstacle is not Pittsburgh’s willingness. It is that half the league has a spare veteran passer to shop right now.
Rudolph is 31 and playing out the second year of the two-year deal he signed in March 2025. Per Spotrac, that contract is worth $7.5 million total with $3 million guaranteed, and he carries a 2026 cap hit of roughly $4.6 million with only about $1.6 million in dead money if he goes. Pittsburgh could move him tomorrow and barely feel it.
The Depth Chart Problem
Aaron Rodgers is the starter. He turns 43 in December and is back for what looks like a final run, which makes the backup job in Pittsburgh more meaningful than most.
Rudolph sits second. Behind him are Will Howard and Drew Allar, two young arms the organization drafted and would prefer to develop rather than expose to waivers.
All of this is happening under a new voice. Mike Tomlin stepped down in January after 19 seasons and a 30-6 wild card loss to Houston, and Mike McCarthy took over. New head coaches tend to be less sentimental about holdover depth than the guy who spent years building it.
Who Would Actually Call
Rudolph’s appeal is specific and limited. He is a functional emergency starter who has won games in this league and who knows a room without needing three weeks of onboarding. That has value to a team whose starter goes down in October.
The trouble is that the backup market got flooded this offseason. Geno Smith moved to the Jets. Justin Fields landed in Kansas City. When that many established names change addresses, a 31-year-old career backup becomes a commodity rather than a target.
The realistic callers are teams one hit away from disaster. Think of clubs starting a young quarterback with nothing credible behind him, or a playoff hopeful whose QB2 is a rookie. Nobody is giving up meaningful draft capital right now. A late-round conditional pick is the honest price.
Our Take
Pittsburgh should keep him, at least through September. Betting a season on a 43-year-old quarterback and a rookie-level backup is how a promising year evaporates in one bad Sunday. Rudolph is cheap insurance on the most expensive risk on the roster.
The counterargument is that Howard and Allar do not develop while buried, and that carrying four quarterbacks costs Pittsburgh a real roster spot somewhere else. Fair. But the answer to that is trading one of the young arms, not the one guy who can actually finish a game if Rodgers goes down in Week 4.
Prediction: no deal before the opener, and a real chance he is moved by the November 10 deadline once injuries elsewhere create a bidding market that does not exist today. If Pittsburgh gets a fifth-round pick for Rudolph in late October, that is a win. Right now, they would be selling into the worst possible market for exactly the kind of player they are trying to sell.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
