The main thing i see with Rudolph is improvement. He's still a bit hesitant, but he's also fearless in the pocket. He's looking downfield to make plays. In this game, he threw into some tight windows and that is really the toughest thing for young QBs to learn. It's what I liked about his OK St film. So many of the college QBs throw to wide open guys all game. Rudolph had a lot of anticipatory throws and plays where he put a ball in a spot for his WR, usually Washington, to make a play.
The guy was getting Boo'd by his own fans on Monday Night Football. He was losing, under heavy pressure, and his WRs weren't really getting open. Lots of QBs cave in that situation, like Darnold did. Or they just start chucking it downfield like Mayfield does. Rudolph stayed poised. This kid is tough.
He missed some throws but he also made some incredible throws into tight coverage and put it in the right spot for his guy to make a play. As his confidence grew, his mechanics got better and he made better throws.
So far, i see him missing on the things that are fixable and he's doing well with that parts that are toughest to learn.
Does he have a cannon? No, but neither did Manning or Brady. And in today's game I think arm strength is even less important. Sure, you can't have a weak arm, but you don't need that cannon like in years past when there were 7 step drops. He does have more than adequate arm strength.
I don't think Fichtner is doing him any favors either. Hard to see on the TV broadcast but it seemed like most of the routes were downfield and slow developing.
