Ben Roethlisberger changes tune, welcomes Mason Rudolph to Steelers with advice, kind words

“I think people took some things I said into a context that I was going to be mean or rude [to Rudolph] or whatever,” Roethlisberger told reporters Tuesday. “That was not it at all. If you listen to the whole conversation, it was said in jest and laughing and having fun.

“I’ve never been the type to just be rude or mean to other quarterbacks. I’ve had a lot of quarterbacks come through here that are younger than me that I’ve tried to help any way that I can. So I’ll continue to do that.”

“Well, that’s fine. He can do that,” Roethlisberger said of Rudolph being his heir apparent after the draft. “But I plan on playing for three to five more years, depending on how the line goes and staying healthy, if I can stay healthy.

“If he’s going to be their guy, that’s great, but in my perfect world it’s not going to be for a while.”

“So I was surprised when they took a quarterback, because I thought that maybe in the third round, you can get some really good football players that can help this team now. Nothing against Mason. I think he’s a great football player. I don’t know him personally, but I’m sure he’s a great kid. I just don’t know how, you know, backing up or being the third guy — who knows where he’s going to fall on the depth chart — but [how it] helps us win now.”

“I think the media got it kind of twisted around a little bit. He’s a Hall of Fame quarterback. He’s a competitive guy. That’s what I would expect. He’s a longtime starter. 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.”

“There was a particular play he ran a little naked [bootleg] on,” Roethlisberger said, “and he was probably six or seven yards from Rosey and he threw it pretty hard at Rosey and he threw it high and Rosey didn’t catch it. You know, Rosey’s kind of a team favorite here and the linemen started giving him a little grief and stuff.

I just pulled him aside and said, ‘Hey listen, you’ll learn quickly: Every throw doesn’t have to be the hardest throw you can make. You don’t have to put every throw like on a guy’s chests as hard as you can. That’s a great opportunity to just give him a nice easy touch pass.’ Just trying to instill little things like that.”