Welcome to the terrible take many podcasts telling Steelers Nation what's on our mind.

I'm Josh Carney.

Based on Mason Rudolph's performance in week 16 against the Cincinnati Bengals,

there was no real way that Pittsburgh Steelers

said Coach Mike Tomlin could go away from the hot hand, one that helped save the Steelers

season. Therefore, nothing that Tomlin stated Tuesday during his weekly press conference leading up to the Week 17 match-up on the road against the Seattle Seahawks came off as surprising.

Mason Rudolph has got the ball to start the week ahead of the Seattle

matchup and the team will see how Kenny Pickett looks with some reps in practice

before making a true starting quarterback decision. That's all that Talmud could really say in that

situation. Pickett isn't cleared to play yet and wasn't healthy enough to practice

in full last week. That led to him being inactive against the Bengals. He'll get a chance to practice in full this week, but Tomlin said all the right things about Rudolph Tuesday.

As he should have. The veteran came off the bench to start a game in the NFL for the first time

in two years and lit up the Bengals, throwing for 290 yards and two touchdowns. He was aggressive

taking shots downfield and he was quite accurate with the football.

He made good decisions on the night too, protecting the football at a high level.

It was the best performance from a Steelers quarterback in nearly two full seasons too.

Rudolph more than earned another opportunity for the Steelers.

Tomlin made that clear, but he did so without burying Pickett too. That's important.

There's a delicate way to handle the quarterback situation for the Steelers currently.

Tomlin seemingly threaded the needle, quite well on Tuesday, giving some backing to Rudolph for a second

chance, while also giving Pickett a potential out due to injury. And as Dave Ryan said on Twitter after Tomlin's press conference,

it seems that something extraordinary would need to happen for Rudolph to not

...