There was his nose, to begin with. In the first version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” it glowed “like the eyes of a cat,” and Rudolph’s friends nicknamed him Ruddy because of it.

Could a true option really be Mason Rudolph going into the season as the starter for the team? Former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has notably not had smooth relations with Rudolph ...