It’s tough to come up with a sports relationship that’s analogous to the one between Mason Rudolph and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Billy Martin and the New York Yankees, perhaps?

Not quite. Maybe I should go the television route. How about Ross and Rachel on “Friends”?

“Sorry about hooking up with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields and letting you go to Tennessee, Mason. But we … were on … a break!”

Nah. That feels too cute and cozy. The Rudolph-Steelers relationship is more dangerously codependent. It’s more like Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in “Breaking Bad.” No matter how many times Walter screwed over Jesse, threw him under the bus, mistreated him or sold him out, Jesse always found himself having to return to Walter, and Walter kept finding himself needing Jesse.

Sound familiar?

Now Rudolph is back again, as the Steelers have nowhere else to turn at quarterback — at least for the time being.

Based on what I can tell, Pittsburgh seems just fine with that.

After Rudolph was reacquired by the club Thursday, I posted a web poll asking for feedback on social media about the move. An overwhelming number of respondents said that they prefer the idea of Rudolph as the Steelers potential starting quarterback in 2025 to that of Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson or any other theoretical option that remains available.

What is your preference at this point for the #Steelers at QB to open 2025?

— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) March 14, 2025

Yes, this is the same Mason Rudolph that Steelers fans gleefully dismissed for Devlin “Duck” Hodges in 2019 and openly booed for merely taking the field during the preseason in 2022.

It’s amazing what those three wins Rudolph constructed at the end of 2023 did for his legacy here and how much he has been aided by the mediocrity of everyone else who has tried to hold down the position since Ben Roethlisberger retired following the 2021 campaign.

Rudolph is returning after playing eight games for the Tennessee Titans last year when he posted remarkably similar numbers to the ones he logged through 10 games under center in Pittsburgh in 2019.

That was a season so mundane that fans wanted no part of him starting again after Roethlisberger retired. The franchise obliged by replacing Big Ben with Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett in 2022, rendering Rudolph to third-string duty. He never took a snap.

Turned over to free agency in 2023, Rudolph came back in May as the third-stringer again and only got a chance to play when the stumbling Steelers seemed lost at 7-7 before he salvaged the year with three straight wins and got the organization into the postseason.

However, the club was still so unimpressed that they allowed him to join the Titans after deciding they’d be better served acquiring Wilson and Fields to replace Pickett and Trubisky.

Now, Rudolph has returned after going 1-4 in five starts for the woeful Titans. Yet, based on the reception for him, you’d think that Terry Bradshaw circa 1978 had returned in black and gold.

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So, why the excitement? Do Steelers fans really think Rudolph is going to help the Steelers improve on last year’s 10-7 record or replicate his short stint of 2023 if he becomes the default starter?

Honestly, it doesn’t seem that way. The fans that I’ve interacted with on the radio, via email or social media have a much more pragmatic stance:

• Rudolph is a genuine comeback story. He is much easier to root for than the narcissistic Rodgers or the pleasant but sometimes too polished and political Wilson. If the Steelers are finally going to regress below .500 (as it appears they finally might do in 2025), at least do so with a QB the fanbase actually likes.

OK. I’ll buy that.

• Rudolph is expeditious. He isn’t going to cost much ($4 million per year over two seasons), and he can be kept as a backup or let go if better options come around before 2026 begins. Plus, if things go badly in 2025, big deal. Then, the Steelers will be in a better draft position in 2026 when the event is in Pittsburgh, and the team may have a better chance of landing a legit franchise quarterback of the future.

Actually, I buy that too.

But that’s quite a commentary, isn’t it? Steelers fans are coming together on a collective endorsement of a quarterback based on how easy it may be to get rid of him 365 days from now and the convenient timing of ending the fabled 21-year streak of no losing seasons.

That says a lot about how substantially we’ve allowed the bar of expectations to be lowered around here.

Frankly, though, the way the Steelers have mangled their quarterback situation, that may just be the right view to take.

As Walter White once said, “Those consequences, they’re coming. No more prolonging the inevitable.”

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