The Pittsburgh Steelers are beginning their offseason with more questions than answers at the quarterback position. Even with the team cutting Mitch Trubisky, nothing is confirmed for the roster other than Kenny Pickett being on the roster for training camp. Mason Rudolph is a pending free agent, and Pickett is currently the only quarterback under contract for 2024. Despite all the uncertainty at the position, it appears most of the offense knows who they want leading them, and anything but their wishes could result in a disaster similar to the Steelers’ three game losing streak in 2023.

Steelers’ Reaction To Quarterbacks Should Be Concerning

On DK’s Daily Shot, Dejan Kovacevic spoke about the offense with Rudolph under center. He first spoke about the receiving core, and his report was very direct to, not just Trubisky or Pickett, but how the team operated.

“Here’s the part you don’t want to hear: The other thing that happened over those four weeks, including Buffalo, was that the wide receivers were a lot more dedicated to running their routes. I do not offer this as praise, I really don’t. I think that if you’re a wide receiver, and you’re being paid a lot of money to be paid to be a wide receiver, you should show equal commitment to all of your routes. You should show equal commitment to all of your quarterbacks.

There is no way to sugarcoat this. Kovacevic continued on that same train of thought, explaining how he felt that the receivers stopped caring when Pickett and Trubisky were under center. They did their jobs for Rudolph though.

“For reasons that I could only surmise had a lot to do with their quarterbacks to date, first Kenny Pickett, then Mitch Trubisky, these guys really rallied around Mason [Rudolph], and that included George [Pickens]. You didn’t see, all of a sudden, did you notice? The confusion routes, the guys running into each other, how about those massive miscommunications? You remember those? The ones where the ball would end up 30 yards past [the receiver], and even if that wasn’t the quarterback’s fault, whether it was Kenny or Mitch, the receivers had just kind of whatever’d their way through a whole big part of the season. There’s no pride in that, there’s no positive in that, but the positives did come in those final four games, and for George, in particular, man, a lot of positives piled up.”

The receiving core played hard for Rudolph. They seemingly cared about route-running again. George Pickens magically went from locker room problem, to mature. The receivers finally displayed all the talent they had, and the whole team thrived off of it. That is obviously why some players called for Rudolph to start in 2024, despite his status as a free agent.

Kovacevic continued talking about the offense, and that continuation sheds more light on a horrible situation. While the wide receiver room was being toxic and checking out during games, the offensive line was just confused for most of the year.

“You know that I’m going to point out that these [offensive] linemen really went out of their way to say that nothing settled down fully for them until Mason Rudolph was back there holding his pocket and making decisive throws. That’s from them. That’s their view from right there at field level, not mine. There were five total offensive linemen in this scenario. All five of them would say this and did say this. So, here comes another case, just like the George Pickens one in the opening segment, now with the offensive line where you ask yourself, ‘Why would you open the 2024 season with something that isn’t this, because this worked?'”

Kovacevic claimed that all five starting offensive linemen were very open about their roles not working until Trubisky was benched for Rudolph. Everything flipped for everyone immediately once Rudolph became the starter. The mentality and physicality all instantly improved, leading to the Steelers having their two best offensive outputs since 2020.

Listening to the Daily Shot this evening and WOW.

The offensive weapons themselves showed no effort and frustration until they got a different QB to start.

Followed by the entire offensive line saying their job didn’t settle down until the QB spot changed.

This is crazy. pic.twitter.com/bX5EsZRt16

— Baku 🐧 (@Mazursky8895) February 26, 2024

The problem for the Steelers is that Rudolph has already stated his desire to possibly play elsewhere. If the Steelers can’t convince Rudolph to return, they have to bring in someone that is more than just a camp body or backup past his prime.