It's easy for sports news to get blown out of proportion which then leads to speculation, and recently when asked about this year's draft, Ben Roethlisberger didn't shy away from voicing his opinion when it came to the organization drafting Mason Rudolph. Many see Rudolph as Roethlisberger's replacement down the road, which is the logical approach to dissecting the pick as it's no secret Big Ben has been in the league for 14 years now. However, we all heard Big Ben question the pick and express how 'surprised' he was by the pick on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh.
A lot of Steelers fans were excited about the pick, but Roethlisberger was hoping for a player to help them 'win now'. Unfortunately for Big Ben, he often has some trouble staying healthy for all 16 games of a season and prior Rudolph joining the team, Pittsburgh's options at backup quarterback didn't exactly induce a whole lot of confidence amongst the fan base.
It's safe to say there is no bad blood as Big Ben soon after reached out to Rudolph via text message and wished the rookie luck during minicamp. When asked about Roethlisberger's response to picking him in this year's draft, Rudolph supported Big Ben in saying, "I think the media got it kind of twisted a little bit." He also voiced his understanding of where Big Ben is coming from and said, "He's a competitive guy. That's what I would expect. He's a longtime starter." Rudolph added, "I'm sure when we get in this building, in this room, we're going to be friends, and I'm going to let him do his thing and pick up what I can from him but not bother him."
One thing that we can always depend upon from the Steelers organization, is their drafting and scouting abilities. They have a knack for striking gold in the drafts of previous years, and we can only suspect more of this same after this draft.
