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Steelers QB Situation


I am going to start off stating that Mitch Trubisky has now started/played in 3 games. The other QBs, except for Jacoby Brissett, ahead of him in stats have only started/played in 1 or 2 games.

Trubisky ranks #9 overall in passing yards (569), #33 in yards/attempt (5.5), tied for #18 with 2 TDs, and #30 in QB Rating (77.7). The Steelers have now only produced 4 offensive TDs in 3 games. To make matters worse, Trubisky “is on pace for the NFL’s worst yards per attempt in a decade”.


Trubisky has also been on the fortunate side of some spectacular catches by Johnson (vs the Bengals) and Pickens (vs the Browns).

At this point it doesn’t appear that Mike Tomlin is considering replacing Trubisky.

If Trubisky has another average at best start vs the NY Jets in week 4, then the Steelers might be forced to make a QB change sometime from week 5 through week 8 (Bills, Buccaneers, Dolphins, and Eagles). We will take a look at their options below.


Kenny Pickett – The Rookie

I honestly feel that if the Steelers were going to use Pickett, the best option would be the week 4 matchup vs the Jets. Give him the extra practice time now with the starters to build up some confidence with the receivers for the Jets game. This would give a chance for the Steelers to see what they have with the 2022 1st rounder in real live action. This is also my choice for the Steelers. Here are some stats of how some rookie QBs have faired in their debuts:

PlayerDebutComp-AttYardsTDsINTsQB rating
Matt Ryan20089-1316110137
Matthew Stafford200916-372050327.4
Sam Bradford201032-552531353.1
Cam Newton201124-3742221110.4
Andrew Luck201223-453091352.9
Robert Griffin III201219-2632020139.9
Ryan Tannehill201220-362190339.0
Jameis Winston201516-332102264.0
Marcus Mariota201513-1520940158.3
Carson Wentz201622-3727820101.0
Sam Darnold201816-2119821116.8
Kyler Murray201929-543082175.2
Joe Burrow202023-361930166.1

Mason Rudolph – Veteran Backup

The Steelers already know what they have in Rudolph. He played in 10 games in 2019, 5 games in 2020, and 2 in 2021. Steeler fans know that he is average at best, and not the answer they need as their long time starting QB. A change to Rudolph would pretty much guarantee that the Steelers will not give Pickett any meaningful playing time this season.

YearGGSQBrecCmpAttCmp%YdsTDTD%IntLngY/AAY/AY/CY/GRateQBR
20191085-3-017628362.21765134.69766.25.710.0176.582.036.2
2020510-1-0254358.132424.71477.57.413.064.887.772.7
2021210-0-1355860.327711.71364.84.37.9138.570.839.5


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