Developing Mason Rudolph isn't Ben Roethlisberger's job

Johnny Manziel’s comeback media blitz in the early part of the spring has likely already been forgotten by many football fans, though one exchange does offer an instructive contrast to the way a major NFL story is currently playing out.

In an interview with Dan Patrick in early April, Manziel lamented his perceived lack of support when he arrived in Cleveland as a rookie in 2014. “When I get to Cleveland, I have a quarterback in the room [Brian Hoyer] that’s not helping me,” Manziel said. “And it’s not really his job to, but nobody was there, helping me. And it was hard. I struggled … There was a lot of winging it, and not a lot of, you know, knowing what I was doing.”

Prominent members of football media took Manziel to task for that comment, including now outgoing SI columnist Peter King. “It’s not the starting quarterback’s job to help the backup take the job from him,” King wrote. “It would be nice if the starter did that, but in my experience, many more starting quarterbacks over time have been okay but not super-helpful to the first-round pick who’s there to put the starter out of business.”

A month later, King was praising a piece written by one of his colleagues chastening Ben Roethlisberger for being less than enthusiastic about the idea of helping to develop Mason Rudolph, a quarterback the Steelers selected with a third-round pick in last month’s draft. In a local radio interview last week, Roethlisberger said he was surprised by the team’s decision to take a quarterback with a relatively high pick given that he claims to have told the Steelers he plans to play for another three to five years.

Roethlisberger’s shock does come off as disingenuous since not only is he 36 years old, with a history of bodily punishment extensive even for someone his age, but because he just last offseason expressed a willingness to retire soon. That said, an incoming third-round pick is hardly a clear-cut changing of the guard. Had Pittsburgh drafted Lamar Jackson in the first round, as perhaps the team should have, there would be a more compelling argument that the Steelers were definitively trying to move on from Roethlisberger. A third-round pick isn’t exactly a throwaway pick, but it’s not a guaranteed starter in waiting, either. It’s only one round earlier than the Steelers took Landry Jones a few years ago, and while Jones has been a serviceable backup, he’s never threatened to assume the full-time starting role.

To put things into perspective, the Patriots in the last decade have drafted four quarterbacks in the third round or earlier. Of those, only Jimmy Garoppolo was ever seriously heralded as an heir apparent to Tom Brady, and he was eventually traded away, as Brady has made it clear he plans on continuing to play well beyond the age of 40. Similar to Roethlisberger, there were reports that Brady had no interest in helping anyone assume his starting job, especially when Garoppolo took over during part of Brady’s four-game suspension to start the 2016 season.

Obviously the context of Manziel as a rookie in 2014 and Rudolph in 2018 are quite different. Manziel was a first-round pick for a desperate team with a stopgap QB as its starter. Manziel was taken in the draft with every assumption that he would take over as starter sooner or later. Yet Manziel is still considered wrong for assuming the incumbent starter should have helped him more. Rudolph is entering as a mid-round pick, joining a team whose current quarterback is arguably the best in franchise history. This time, however, it’s the starter being pressured to do more for the new guy.

The Steelers are very much still in their Super Bowl window. Rudolph may end up being a fine, or even great, passer. It’s highly unlikely he’ll be a consequential player for a Steelers team that has designs on contending in 2018. If Roethlisberger sustains a long-term injury, there’s a good chance Rudolph would get more playing time than expected. That’s what happened the year Roethlisberger was drafted, and he said incumbent starter Tommy Maddox was helpful in his development. Of course, Maddox was just OK to maybe slightly above average, and the Steelers weren’t a threat to contend prior to drafting Roethlisberger. It’s well-known that Big Ben often plays hurt, yet somehow he manages to avoid the catastrophic injury. If he does go down for the long term this coming season, Rudolph will mostly play just to see what he has to offer, rather than presumably leading a championship contender.

Roethlisberger, like Manziel, is far from a sympathetic figure, and that seems to be driving a lot of outrage about this story. One could reasonably argue he should be more accommodating for a team that stood by him through two sexual assault accusations, though that kind of indulgence is just as likely to make a player feel even more entitled. It’s fair to argue that Roethlisberger is being a jerk in his disdain for Rudolph’s development. It’s also understandable for a competitor who thinks he can eke out one more championship not to focus on the next era of his franchise.

From a practical standpoint, there’s little potential benefit for the 2018 Steelers for Roethlisberger to spend time coaching up a mid-round pick. The rookie will learn whether or not Roethlisberger is taking pains to instruct him. After all, coaching Rudolph isn’t Roethlisberger’s job, and as other pundits have said, it’s common for a starter to play a perfunctory role in bringing up his successor.