Its time to roll with Mason Rudolph

["BuzzNuter"]

The Rooney's will offer Ben a restructure that works out to 22M per year for 3 years. He will retire after 2021. The cap experts can figure out what is team friendly. If Ben does not go for it they will cut him or retire him.

[Chucktownsteeler]

The Rooney's will offer Ben a restructure that works out to 22M per year for 3 years. He will retire after 2021. The cap experts can figure out what is team friendly. If Ben does not go for it they will cut him or retire him.

Very interesting perspective.

[feltdizz]

I agree 100%.

That’s a weird thing to agree with since you are in the medical field.

I thought Mason came back too early after that hit and wasn’t fully recovered.

All I know is our O looked more efficient with Mason vs Cleveland than with Ben last Sunday. Ben was a beast in his prime.. but that time is over.

[Eich]

All I know is our O looked more efficient with Mason vs Cleveland than with Ben last Sunday. Ben was a beast in his prime.. but that time is over.

While true, it also looked even more efficient the first time we played the Clowns this season in a 38-7 win. I don't think the flip-flop is all on Ben, although his 4 ints were awful. For the past two months, it's like the whole offense came out in the first half like uninterested zombies and then somehow woke up in the 2nd half.

[NorthCoast]

While true, it also looked even more efficient the first time we played the Clowns this season in a 38-7 win. I don't think the flip-flop is all on Ben, although his 4 ints were awful. For the past two months, it's like the whole offense came out in the first half like uninterested zombies and then somehow woke up in the 2nd half.

Sure the score makes it look that way in the first game. But looks are deceiving. Reality was Roethlisberger wasn't any better than Rudolph against Cleveland. In fact, you could argue Rudolph had a much better game against the Browns because he had little help in the run game.

Here's the breakdown based on play success rates for the two games:

	Wk 6	Succ. Plays		Wk 17	Succ Plays
Rushing success	57%	21-37		45%	9-20
Passing success	36%	9-25		36%	16-45

[Success= 40% of line to gain on 1st down, 60% on 2nd, 100% on 3rd & 4th]

[Oviedo]

I see a few people on here shrug at his performance because it was agains the Browns..

But after Sunday night when you look back at the must win game for Cleveland and all the players we had out I think his performance should be elevated a bit.

Obviously I’m ready to move on, thanks for the memories Ben but unfortunately, time is not on your side.

Invest that money in the OL and skill positions and I think we could have a solid team in 2 years.

I agree 100%. We have to pull off the Band-Aid with Ben, because the money we pay him is just an anchor holding us back from a rebuild. We want a quick rebuilt to hopefully get good while we have some of our defensive talent. Keeping Ben just prolongs the agony

[feltdizz]

While true, it also looked even more efficient the first time we played the Clowns this season in a 38-7 win. I don't think the flip-flop is all on Ben, although his 4 ints were awful. For the past two months, it's like the whole offense came out in the first half like uninterested zombies and then somehow woke up in the 2nd half.

oh, this loss was definitely largely on Ben. You cant turn the ball over that often in a half of football and expect to win.

Our D was soft but thats why you cant turn the ball over.

Seeing Mason and Ben play back to back and Ben looking this bad really makes it hard to believe we can’t have some success with Mason.

[Northern_Blitz]

The Rooney's will offer Ben a restructure that works out to 22M per year for 3 years. He will retire after 2021. The cap experts can figure out what is team friendly. If Ben does not go for it they will cut him or retire him.

I wouldn't be surprised if they do a no new money restructure.

But I think it has to be for 5 years (to minimize the impact from the money converted to SB this year) and I think the lowest it can go is something like $26.5M (with something like $14M dead cap hit next season).

I don't think it's possible to get down to $22M with the rules in the CBA.

Money kicked down the road from previous years is $22.25M. This number can't be lowered even if we cut him.

To get to the $26.5M I mentioned above, you add a minimum base salary ($1.3M I think). Then they'd convert the remaining money that's in his contract this year to a signing bonus that's spread over the max allowable time (5 years) for cap purposes.

I supposed that it's technically possible to get the number to $22.25M+$1.3M (vet min salary). But it would require Ben to signing a deal that pays him almost $18M less than what's on his current contract.

I think there is a 0% chance that he signs a new contract that essentially takes a significant amount of money out of his pocket.

[NJ-STEELER]

I’m amazed at the flip flopping done here, on any player that “sort of plays well” or in the case last year played poorly in first ever career starts.

[feltdizz]

I’m amazed at the flip flopping done here, on any player that “sort of plays well” or in the case last year played poorly in first ever career starts.

not sure what this means.. but for me it comes down to the future.

I was down on Mason last year after the concussion. He did a lot of dinking and dunking. I thought it was because they wanted to protect Mason and but turns out that was our philosophy on offense this year as well.

Why pay 35 mill for dink and dunk football?

[Steel Maniac]

I agree, I'm ready to go with Rudolph for now. My plan would include bringing in another inexpensive, youngish QB with faded promise - a guy like Darnold, Mariota, Trubisky etc. Someone who was once thought to have promise, but for a cheap cost we bring him in and let him compete with Rudolph to start. If one of them steps up then that's great. If not then the investment is minimal and not going to handcuff the cap moving forward. build, build, build the line and if neither QB steps up then stay on the lookout.

I too am ready to move on. It’s the front office’s fault that they haven’t adequately filled the QB position. Now, because of a lowered cap and a “ kick the can forward” mentality in finances, we are up against it for the 2021 season. It’s going to be painful regardless so less get it started so we can see brighter days in the 2022 season and beyond.

[Northern_Blitz]

I too am ready to move on. It’s the front office’s fault that they haven’t adequately filled the QB position. Now, because of a lowered cap and a “ kick the can forward” mentality in finances, we are up against it for the 2021 season. It’s going to be painful regardless so less get it started so we can see brighter days in the 2022 season and beyond.

What?

Are you saying that you would have cut Ben last season?

Or that they shouldn't have restructured him so we couldn't put the tag on Bud?

I'm not sure what other choice we had after signing the extension. We placed that bet years ago.