The Pittsburgh Steelers have four quarterbacks. Elsewhere around the NFL, teams are starting to run out of them.
That might finally create a market for Mason Rudolph.
Rudolph has been mentioned as a possible trade chip since before the season, but the quarterback landscape looks a little different heading into Week 4. The Minnesota Vikings just dealt one of theirs away, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers suddenly need to survive at least a few weeks without Baker Mayfield.
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox believes both teams make sense for Rudolph. He listed Minnesota and Tampa Bay as potential suitors Wednesday and put Rudolph’s projected price at a conditional 2027 sixth-round pick.
For Pittsburgh, that’s at least worth a phone call.
Steelers Could Find Mason Rudolph Trade Market
The Steelers are 2-1, and Aaron Rodgers looked much more like himself Sunday, throwing for 292 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-27 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Behind him, though, Pittsburgh is still carrying Rudolph, second-year quarterback Will Howard and rookie Drew Allar.
Knox doesn’t see much reason for the Steelers to get overly attached to all that depth.
“At 2-1, they should still believe they can make a playoff run with the veteran at quarterback. They shouldn’t be too attached to the depth they have behind him, either,” Knox wrote.
Pittsburgh has apparently been willing to listen for a while.
Casino.org’s Jason La Canfora reported before the season that NFL executives viewed the Steelers as “very open” to dealing Rudolph if they could find a buyer.
“The one thing stopping this is not Pittsburgh’s willingness to sell, it’s the number of quarterbacks potentially available across the league which could make finding a deal more difficult,” La Canfora wrote.
A month later, some of that competition has started disappearing.
The Vikings traded J.J. McCarthy to the New York Giants this week for a 2027 fifth-round pick after New York lost Jaxson Dart for the season.
At the same time, injuries keep reshuffling quarterback rooms around the league.
Vikings, Buccaneers Make Sense for Mason Rudolph
Tampa Bay is the obvious one.
Mayfield dislocated his right thumb late in Sunday’s loss to Minnesota and is expected to miss at least three weeks. That leaves the Buccaneers turning things over to undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels.
Daniels had never attempted a regular-season pass before replacing Mayfield late against the Vikings.
Minnesota’s situation isn’t as desperate, but Rudolph would give the Vikings another experienced option after shipping McCarthy out.
Kyler Murray remains the starter and returned in Week 3 after suffering a concussion in the season opener. Carson Wentz already proved useful when Murray went down, starting Week 2 before handing the job back.
Still, Minnesota is 3-0 and has already needed two starting quarterbacks. Moving McCarthy leaves less protection behind them.
Rudolph, 31, has been around long enough that neither team would be guessing about what it’s getting. He has 19 regular-season starts and one playoff start on his résumé, with most coming in Pittsburgh. His best stretch came in 2023, when he won three straight starts and helped push the Steelers into the postseason.
He’s also in the final year of the two-year, $7.5 million contract he signed to return to Pittsburgh in 2025.
All that said, Pittsburgh has something increasingly useful right now: an extra veteran quarterback who has won NFL games.
If Minnesota or Tampa Bay decides it wants another one, Rudolph is right there.
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