Mason Rudolph’s lackluster start proved Mike Tomlin right for second time this week

Over the last calendar year, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has made some decisions that can be seen as curious at best.

One of these decisions saw him choose to let Mason Rudolph, a player who had spent four seasons with the Steelers and looked quite impressive at the end of the 2023 campaign, walk in free agency. Rudolph, their third option at the quarterback position in 2023, made only three starts, but led Pittsburgh to win each time he started.

Rudolph completed 74.3 percent of his throws overall for 719 yards and three touchdowns without an interception in his four appearances. Sure, he didn't look elite by any means, and he struggled in Pittsburgh's lone playoff game but he certainly played well when thrust into action. In fact, without his late-season heroics, there's a chance that the Steelers wouldn't have even made the playoffs.

Rudolph wound up signing a deal with the Tennessee Titans, and got to make his first start with his new team in Week 7. It did not go well. The 29-year-old completed 62.5 percent of his throws for 215 yards, throwing one passing touchdown to go along with an interception. Those numbers don't look awful on the surface, but the Titans lost 34-10. He can't control their defense, but Rudolph only putting 10 points on the board is quite bad.

Whether Rudolph can turn it around with any additional starts he might earn in Tennessee remains to be seen, but based on how he played on Sunday and how he looked in Week 4 entering in relief of Will Levis (9-of-17 for 85 yards), the Steelers made the right decision to let him go, even while it looked questionable at the time.

Letting Rudolph go might not have even been Tomlin's biggest win from this past week.

Mason Rudolph's poor start is only one of Mike Tomlin's wins from Week 7

The Steelers went about replacing Rudolph and the other subpar quarterbacks on their roster by trading for Justin Fields and signing Russell Wilson. Fields played well in his six weeks as a starter with Wilson injured, but it was clear from the moment that Wilson signed in Pittsburgh that he was going to start. Wilson was deemed healthy in Week 7, so he got the start against the New York Jets.

Starting Wilson after Fields played pretty well and led the Steelers to a 4-2 record felt questionable at best. Fields is younger, figured to have a better chance behind a shaky offensive line due to his mobility, and again, was winning. Wilson (and Tomlin) proved the doubters wrong, though.

Wilson completed 16 of his 29 attempts for 264 yards and two touchdowns. He did what Fields should've done - give George Pickens the ball - and saw tons of success. The Steelers scored 37 points, putting together one of their strongest offensive showings in years.

The Steelers could've easily bought into Rudolph's strong finish to the 2023 campaign and chose to re-sign him. Instead, they let him walk (good decision) and replaced him with Wilson (good decision). It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out the rest of the season, but in Week 7 alone, Tomlin seemed to push all of the right buttons.