Mark Madden's Hot Take: Mason Rudolph gets chance to prove his worth to Steelers

Cleveland’s Myles Garrett and the Steelers’ Mason Rudolph did not verbally renew last year’s on-field hostilities this week. The presumption is that each has matured, and moved on.

The reality is that Garrett lied about what happened. It was a total fabrication.

Rudolph allegedly directing a racial slur toward Garrett was never corroborated: Not by a Brown, nor a Steeler, nor an official, nor a microphone. The denouement to this clown act should have been Garrett admitting and regretting. Garrett swinging a helmet at Rudolph’s head was nonfiction. It had witnesses.

The media hasn’t hyped the race angle despite Sunday’s de facto rematch at Cleveland, as Rudolph starts for the Steelers. That’s because the media knows it was horse manure all along.

So, on Sunday, Rudolph gets his shot. Not for revenge, but to prove his worth as an NFL quarterback.

The Steelers don’t need to win. They’re resting several starters. That includes center Maurkice Pouncey. Their offensive line is mediocre (at best) in the first place.

The situation isn’t set up for Rudolph to succeed, although he will have the Steelers’ full complement of receivers to work with. (That presumes Diontae Johnson is OK after missing Friday’s practice with illness.)

Rudolph likely won’t succeed Ben Roethlisberger as the long-term starter when the latter retires. A good showing tomorrow might trigger that debate.

But Roethlisberger’s successor isn’t on the roster. (Duh. If it’s not Rudolph, it’s not going to be Josh Dobbs or Duck Hodges.)

Rudolph hasn’t been as terrible as the bad moments a fan tends to remember. He started eight games last year, winning five. He threw 13 touchdowns against nine picks. His completion percentage was 62.2, his passer rating 82.0. If he stunk, the fragrance wasn’t too offensive.

If the Steelers feel they can compete in the immediate aftermath of Roethlisberger quitting, they should recycle another team’s failed high draft pick, cap constraints permitting. Several names come to mind. Sam Darnold is first and foremost, since his New York Jets figure to draft Ohio State’s Justin Fields or Brigham Young’s Zach Wilson with the second pick overall.

The Jets will ruin Fields or Wilson like they ruined Darnold and would have ruined Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence had they not stupidly won the last two games to blow the No. 1 pick. But Darnold is a talent: Third pick overall in 2018. Pittsburgh offers him infinitely more resources. The Jets are NFL hell.

But none of that will happen. The Steelers will draft Ben’s successor. Rudolph might serve as a stopgap for a season or two.

The Steelers have played 791 regular-season football games since Terry Bradshaw joined the team as the NFL’s first pick overall in 1970. Only 97 of those games (12%) have been started by a quarterback not drafted by the Steelers. In only three of those 51 seasons has a QB not drafted by the Steelers started more than half the games: Mike Tomczak in 1996, Tommy Maddox in 2002 and ’03.

If you want to know what the Steelers will do, look at what the Steelers have done.