Mason Rudolph needs to start in Seattle this Sunday vs. the Seahawks.

Before I go any further, this isn’t some personal agenda where I’m on Team Mason and want my narrative to “win.”

By the way, social media (and everyone else), it only took you a day to ruin what should have been a great sports story. I’m talking about Rudolph’s rise from obscurity to the best quarterbacking performance for the Steelers since the days of Ben Roethlisberger. As you watched Rudolph throw for 290 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-11 victory over Cincinnati at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday, it should have been as clear as day that it was the top performance since Roethlisberger’s retirement. Heck, I’d put Rudolph’s box score up there with anything a Steelers quarterback has done since offense became a four-letter word around here in 2019.

You throw in Rudolph’s history of being booed by the fans and then suddenly getting serenaded with chants of “Mason Rudolph!” at the end of Saturday’s game, how could you not enjoy that?

Because you suck.

That seems like a crude thing to write during the holiday season, but I just can’t help it. Instead of fans enjoying the moment, they spent the day on Sunday trying to pick apart Rudolph’s performance to prop up Kenny Pickett, the second-year quarterback from the University of Pittsburgh. Many even tried to use Pickett’s day against the Bengals at Paycor Stadium on November 26 as evidence that he had the better game vs. that particular AFC North opponent in 2023.

Are you kidding me?

It wouldn’t even be close in a rational world, but we’re no longer living in a rational world. We’re living in a world that includes social media, podcasts, blogs, and All-22 footage. That’s right, there are now plenty of ways for fans to twist things in favor of their agenda.

That happened on Sunday in the Pickett vs. Rudolph argument.

You know what else happened? Someone, I believe it was legit NFL insider Dov Kleiman, Tweeted a still shot of Pickett’s face at the exact moment Steelers fans were chanting Rudolph’s name. The implication was that Pickett wasn’t too happy, bruh! Oh, stuff! Pickett is pulling a Pickens, yo!

Just shut up because that is pretty ridiculous.

What do you know? I found a way to support both Rudolph and Pickett in the same article. I “both sides” the ridiculous nature of personal agendas. Why did I do that? I love the Steelers. I admit that they’ve been hard to watch over the past few years, but I still want to see them do well. I hadn’t watched them do much of anything well for a long, long time before Saturday’s beatdown of Cincinnati.

Let me backtrack just a bit. You see, I used “support” in that last paragraph when discussing both Rudolph and Pickett, and I believe that’s where we’ve gone wrong in this social media age. Back in my day, you’d have favorite players on your team who you rooted for. You might even argue with your friends about why one should be starting over their favorite player(s). But at the end of the day, you all wanted the same thing for your favorite team: Success.

Far too many people on social media say things like “I’ve been a supporter of (insert player/coach here) for a long time.” When you say things like that, you’re making it far too personal. You’re making it just as much about you as you are the player/coach. It’s hard to be objective when you approach things that way.

It’s also hard to be objective when you prioritize being right over everything else.

I’d like to think I’m an objective person, and when I say Rudolph should start this Sunday in Seattle, it’s not because I hate Pickett. Hell, I’m a huge Pitt fan. I grew up loving the Panthers. I worked for Pitt. I took classes there. Pitt is my favorite college football team. I want Pickett to do well. Right now, however, I want the Steelers to continue to look like they did against the Bengals on Saturday.

I want the offense to perform in a Sunday-ish manner and not the Saturday-ish way that it has since even before Matt Canada became the designer of it.

Do I want Pickett to be the quarterback of the future? Sure, but I wouldn’t care if it was Rudolph, either. For that matter, Mitch Trubisky could emerge as the man, and I wouldn’t give a hoot.

Just give me a quarterback who can do something for the Steelers. These guys are all still in their 20s. Trubisky is 29. Rudolph is 28. Pickett is 25. If it suddenly clicked for any one of these quarterbacks tomorrow, I would sign my name in blood for them to lead the Steelers offense for the next decade.

Honestly, I doubt Trubisky is that man, but it’s not like Pickett has shown any signs of being him, either.

Rudolph is the man who has played the position the best over the past few years. Yes, it was just one game, but it’s not like Pickett has provided any legit  evidence to support the idea that he should automatically be thrown back into the lineup the second he’s 100 percent healthy.

That brings me to head coach Mike Tomlin. What will he do if it’s determined that Pickett is healthy enough to play against the Seahawks? Will he put his second-year quarterback back into the lineup, or will he go with Rudolph, the proverbial hot hand? Based on Tomlin’s supposed unwavering mindset of only focusing on the next game, Rudolph should probably be the starter vs. Seattle. Not only did he just give the Steelers their best performance at quarterback since at least the end of the Roethlisberger era, but they are still very much alive for the playoffs. Are the odds long? Yes, but there are still odds.

Doesn’t Tomlin sort of owe it to the rest of his players to give them the best chance of winning this upcoming game? If the choice of Sunday’s starting quarterback was put up to an anonymous vote by the players, who do you think they’d vote for?

You know who they’d pick.

Maybe Rudolph only had the one game in him. Maybe he’ll go out there and lay a huge egg vs. the Seahawks next Sunday. So what? Again, it’s not like Pickett has even approached the kind of performance that Rudolph turned in against Cincinnati.

To me, the decision is easy: You go with Rudolph.

“What if it hurts Pickett’s development?” you might ask. OK, if sitting for a couple of games hurts his development, his ego, and his psyche, that tells you all you need to know about Pickett’s future in the NFL. Pickett wouldn’t be the first young quarterback to get benched. Young players get benched all the time. But a good many of them–even quarterbacks–ultimately round into shape and reach their potential. Believe me, I am all for a young quarterback taking his lumps, but we’re beyond that with Pickett.

If Rudolph can get relegated to third-string and bounce back from that to have the best day of his career, Pickett can get benched for a game or two and survive that experience mentally and emotionally.

Mason Rudolph needs to start against the Seahawks, and it really shouldn’t be a debate.