Mason Rudolph to start at QB for Pittsburgh Steelers vs Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin announced Monday that Mason Rudolph will be the team's starting quarterback for Saturday's NFL Week 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Tomlin said Rudolph will start over Mitch Trubisky, adding that there's a chance injured starter Kenny Pickett could be cleared to return for the game. Pickett completed 24-of-33 attempts for 278 yards in Pittsburgh's 16-10 win in Cincinnati in November.
Rudolph saw his first game action of the season during last week's 30-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, completing 2-of-3 attempts for 3 yards. He was inactive for the entire 2022 season.
Rudolph, a 2018 third-round draft pick of the Steelers, has started 10 games for Pittsburgh, including two against the Bengals. He completed 24-of-28 attempts for 229 yards with two touchdowns in a 27-3 win against Cincinnati in September 2019, and beat the Bengals again in Cincinnati in November, completing 8-of-16 attempts for 85 yards with an interception in a 16-10 win.
"It's our intention as we sit here today to get Mason Rudolph an opportunity to start," Tomlin said at a press conference Monday. "He's a veteran guy. He's a backup but he's also a veteran guy. He's been in our program a long time. He's here for those reasons. We got a great deal of comfort with him.
"Why are we making the change? We don't like what we're looking at in the consistency of it. What I mean is we're not scoring enough points, particularly as you move into December football. You've got the score more than 12, 14, 16 points in games this time of year. You had better assume that others are doing the same."
The Bengals and Steelers traded spots in the AFC playoff picture over the weekend, with Cincinnati moving up to No. 6.
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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Mason Rudolph to start at QB for Pittsburgh vs Cincinnati Bengals
