The Pittsburgh Steelers reportedly plan to meet with free agent QB Russell Wilson before the start of free agency, yet they’re still interested in Mason Rudolph. General manager Omar Khan confirmed the latter on Thursday—not touching the former subject with a 10-foot pole. But his tone strikes a less optimistic note than his comments at the NFL Scouting Combine.

On both occasions, Khan acknowledged the likelihood that Rudolph wants to test free agency. His latest comments during an interview with KDKA’s Richie Walsh for CBS Pittsburgh sound comparatively pessimistic.

“I believe he wants to come back and compete”, he said more than a week ago in Indianapolis. “He likes it here. We’ve had a good experience with Mason”. Compare that to his comments that he offered to Walsh on Thursday.

“We’ve had conversations. He knows we’d like to continue conversations to see if something makes sense”, he said. What does he mean by saying “we’d like to continue conversations”, and that Rudolph knows? Is there an implication here that Rudolph decided to break off talks in advance of free agency? That’s speculative interpretation on my part, but it struck me. Still, it conflicts somewhat with his further comments.

“We do like Mason [Rudolph] a lot”, he continued. “But the conversations continue, and I understand the process, that free agency’s around the corner. If I was in his shoes, I would do the same thing, probably. But he knows we are interested in continuing conversations”.

Again, this is difficult to parse, but at the least, it sounds like something is different. Maybe talks haven’t broken off entirely, but perhaps they’ve reached an impasse. He says Rudolph knows they’re interested in continuing conversations twice. If they’re having consistent conversations and they’re making any sort of progress, you’re probably not saying this.

Rudolph has to wait a few more days before he can begin talking to other teams and setting his market. I don’t think anybody expected him to re-sign with the Steelers prior to free agency, anyway. But it doesn’t seem as though there’s much for either party to say to each other until then.

And perhaps the Steelers are feeling less confident in re-signing Rudolph as a result of that. Perhaps that’s a factor in their reported interest in Wilson. All along they’ve expressed an awareness that Rudolph wants to explore his options, however.

Now we’re getting to the point where he has the opportunity to do that. Everything up to now has been speculation. Soon we’ll have the facts—or he will, anyway. What do other teams think about him a year after turning a blind eye to him after his strong finish?

Even head coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged that Rudolph opened his eyes at the end of last season with respect to exactly what he can do. Rudolph is banking on his opening the eyes of others around the league. While he’s not getting national attention outside of the Steelers’ quarterback situation, NFL front offices see everybody’s tape.