As a former, amateur, OL no he didn't. DeCastro did the right thing dragging him off and pushing him away. Pouncey behaved like a thug. Protecting your QB is not the same as trying to beat a guy on the ground. Whilst it in no way justifies Garrett's response, Rudolph should have stayed away when they were separated as DeCastro was doing his job.
You say Rudolph should have stayed separated but to me, it’s totally not relevant to the discussion.
Is it true that if Rudolph didn’t react after the hit then chances are the whole thing would have been averted? Likely. But then just as likely Rudolph doesn’t react if he isn’t hit late. So mute point.
Plenty of QBs who get hit late react with anger. Whilst he should have controlled himself, Rudolph’s reaction is nothing out of the ordinary that we have all seen plenty of times.
The key point is that Garrett reacted in a ridiculous way. If Garrett had shoved Rudolph to the floor, no one would be talking about this much because that would have been a normal reaction. Hitting someone in the head with their helmet is not and is what differentiates this.
In terms of Pouncey, we can only speculate but i highly doubt if Garrett had reacted normally (I.e push Rudolph, or square up to him, or something alike) Pouncey would have reacted in the same way he did. Sure he would have jumped in to defend his guy but in my view his overreacting was a direct result of Garrett overreacting.
Therefore Garrett deservedly received the greatest punishment, Pouncey received the next biggest (which is fair, two wrongs don’t make a right, but heck if I was an o-lineman I’d have reacted how he did any day of the week) and others received fines.
In terms of accountability and in terms of who was the “worst” offender, I frankly don’t see how anyone could deduce a different fact pattern on this.