Mason Rudolph started wearing the No. 2 while playing high school football in South Carolina. He kept it during his record-breaking career at Oklahoma State
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When the Pittsburgh Steelers let him know No. 2 was available when he reported for rookie minicamp, he jumped at the chance.
The two-time defending AFC North champions raised eyebrows when they traded up to grab Rudolph in the third round of the draft – with general manager Kevin Colbert stressing the team had given Rudolph a first-round grade. Rudolph is well aware that he’s second on the depth chart – and more likely third – behind Ben Roethlisberger and Landry Jones.
”I’m looking forward to embracing my role now on this team and learning,” Rudolph said Friday after finishing his first practice as a pro along with the other rookies and first-year players.
And just in case Rudolph needed a reminder about his status, Roethlisberger provided a few in recent weeks when he expressed surprise the team used such a high pick on a quarterback when the 36-year-old two-time Super Bowl winner plans to play until he’s nearing his 40s.
Rudolph didn’t take it personally and pointed out Roethlisberger sent him a text on Thursday wishing him luck.
”I think the media got kind of twisted around a little bit,” Rudolph said of Roethlisberger’s comments to both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and 93.7 The Fan radio in Pittsburgh. ”I think he’s a competitor. He’s a Hall of Fame quarterback and he’s a competitive guy and that’s what I would expect.”
Then again, so is Rudolph. Save for the first 10 games of his prolific career at Oklahoma State, Rudolph has been the starting quarterback for whatever team he was on since his sophomore year of high school. Waiting until the third round while five of his peers went ahead of him- including college rival Baker Mayfield – is something Rudolph admits he’ll carry with him for a long time.
He may need something to keep the fire burning as he spends this fall (and perhaps several others) on the sideline with a clipboard or a headset during games.
”I’m here to prove myself,” Rudolph said. ”That’s the way I approach every facet of my life. But I don’t feel like I’ve got to prove anything to anyone other than these coaches and my teammates.”
Rudolph received new offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner’s playbook about a week ago, one he’s tried to split up into parts so he’s not overwhelmed by its volume.
There will be adjustments along the way. He worked almost exclusively out of the shotgun at Oklahoma State while running coach Mike Gundy’s ”Air Raid” offense. Though he’s spent the last several months doing a crash course on working under center, there were a couple of missed exchanges on Friday.
At one point
http://www.chiefsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-dorian-o_daniel-jersey , when a play didn’t go as crisply as Rudolph liked, he asked Fichtner if he could run it again. It wasn’t a surprise to rookie wide receiver James Washington, a teammate of Rudolph at Oklahoma State and a second-round pick by the Steelers, taken 16 selections ahead of his good friend.
”He’s a perfectionist,” Washington said. ”He doesn’t like things sloppy. I mean if it’s sloppy he’s going to redo it. That’s something that will help him.”
Washington also isn’t concerned about Rudolph taking a backseat for now. They both knew what they were getting when coach Mike Tomlin called him two weeks ago to say they’re coming to the Steelers. This isn’t a rebuilding project. Pittsburgh is built to win now.
Barring injuries, Washington will be asked to make more of an immediate impact than Rudolph. That doesn’t mean Rudolph is going to lose his patience.
”He’s a strong-minded guy,” Washington said. ”He doesn’t care about the hype. He’s just another guy looking for a job.”
And Rudolph understands his job is to soak up what he can from whomever he can and not let egos or agendas or anything else get in the way.
”I’m sure when we get in this building, in this (quarterback) room … we’re going to be friends and I’m going to let (Roethlisberger) do his thing,” Rudolph said. ”I’m going to try and pick up what I can from him but not bother him.”
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The sight of Evgeny Kuznetsov clutching his left arm and leaving the ice after a hit from Brayden McNabb isn’t as big a threat to the Washington Capitals‘ title hopes as it might seem.
Not after the Capitals withstood three games without Nicklas Backstrom. Not after they missed Kuznetsov for most of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and still beat the Vegas Golden Knights to tie the series.
They’d love to have their leading scorer in the lineup Saturday night in Washington, but with superstar captain Alex Ovechkin and several top players producing and filling the void
Packers Elite Jerseys , the Capitals are built to handle life without Kuznetsov if it comes to that.
”We’ve had some guys been out here and there these playoffs,” Backstrom said. ”It’s hard to replace Kuznetsov the way he’s been playing, but if that’s the case it is what it is and we just have to have other guys step up.”
Coach Barry Trotz provided no update on Kuznetsov on Thursday other than to say the Russian center is day to day. The team practices again Friday.
It didn’t look very good for Kuznetsov when he went down the tunnel in the first period Wednesday night and didn’t return. But Ovechkin scored his first career Stanley Cup Final goal on the power play, and Lars Eller, bumped up the lineup to fill in for Kuznetsov, had a goal and two assists.
No one player can make up for the potential loss of Kuznetsov, who has 11 goals and 14 assists in 21 playoff games, though Washington’s depth down the middle looks solid with Backstrom, Eller, Jay Beagle and
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”Nick has gone out or Kuzy has been out, Lars has elevated his game and comes up in a more prominent role,” Trotz said. ”I think he embraces the challenge. He takes the moments very seriously that he has to step up and try to find a way to produce, and he has. He’s a veteran player who has good hockey sense, and he’s strong on the puck, and I think his game translates well in the playoffs.”
It doesn’t hurt that the Capitals can lean on Ovechkin in times of need, and they have received strong performances from top-six wingers Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie and Jakub Vrana and defenseman John Carlson.
It’s the kind of production Vegas is looking for from its top line of Jonathan Marchessault
Roquan Smith Color Rush Jersey , William Karlsson and Reilly Smith. Going on the road means coach Gerard Gallant can’t pick matchups, so he’s counting on his best players to play like it.
”I don’t care who they play against,” Gallant said. ”We’re going to play well and work hard and compete hard. (Wednesday) night they didn’t have the offensive outburst they usually have. You’re not going to be at your best every night. I expect them to be really good for us like they have all season long.”
Gallant tipped his hat to the Capitals, saying they deserved to win Game 2 based on how they performed after losing Kuznetsov. It would be more difficult to sustain that effort and adrenaline for an entire game without him, though it’s a test they passed without Backstrom earlier in the playoffs.
”It’ll be a big loss, but as you saw in the Pittsburgh series when Nick went down, sometimes that kind of energizes some other guys to get in there and be able to make some plays,” Oshie said. ”So we’ll roll with the punches.”
Rolling with the punches has become somewhat of the Capitals’ identity this season and into the playoffs. They got some more in the form of a ground stop at the airport after they landed on Thursday as lightning kept them from getting off the plane.
Trotz considers it just another roadblock for his team to get over.
”Our guys are fine,” he said. ”It’s another layer of adversity that we have to go through all the time.”
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