Although the Steelers made a change to their depth chart Tuesday morning, moving Kenny Pickett from the third-string spot to No. 2, Mitchell Trubisky‘s name remained with the starters. That will be the case Sunday against the Bengals.
Mike Tomlin confirmed Tuesday morning the long-expected path the Steelers will take to open the season: Trubisky is the starting quarterback. The former No. 2 overall pick had been viewed as the starter since signing a two-year, $14M deal in March. This is all but certain to change at some point this season, with Pickett being groomed to take over. For now, however, the Pitt product will learn from the sidelines.
Chosen 20th overall, Pickett played well in the preseason and is now in position to dress as Pittsburgh’s game-day backup. Tomlin said he has been “really pleased” with Pickett’s development thus far. This will be the first time since 2007 that no rookie QB will have started in Week 1 (h/t ESPN.com’s Field Yates, on Twitter). Pickett and third-round Falcons pick Desmond Ridder almost certainly will make starts this season, but Atlanta (Marcus Mariota) and Pittsburgh will go with vets to open the campaign.
After Trubisky’s Bears tenure underwhelmed, putting it mildly, he rebuilt his stock somewhat by backing up Josh Allen in Buffalo. Trubisky, 28, has started three openers — 2018-20 — and was Chicago’s full-time starter early in his 2017 rookie year. The North Carolina product replaced Mike Glennon five games into his rookie season, but after his Bears tenure began to go south in 2019, the Matt Nagy–Ryan Pace regime traded for Nick Foles. The former Super Bowl MVP replaced Trubisky early in the 2020 slate, though the younger passer regained his starting job and helped the Bears to that year’s playoff bracket.
Trubisky has made 50 career starts. He is a career 64.1% passer (6.7 yards per attempt) who is 29-21 as a starter. The Giants were connected to the ex-Brian Daboll Buffalo pupil as well, but the Steelers landed him to be Ben Roethlisberger‘s immediate successor. Pickett looms, however. Roethlisberger took over as a starter in Week 3 of his rookie year, though a Tommy Maddox injury prompted that change. Save for 2019, when Roethlisberger’s elbow injury led to both Rudolph and Devlin Hodges making starts, the Steelers did not need to worry about their QB depth chart for the next 18 seasons
The Steelers will only dress Trubisky and Pickett in Week 1, Tomlin said, noting a clerical error had Rudolph above the rookie on Monday’s official depth chart. Rudolph, who has been with the Steelers since 2018, emerged in late-summer trade rumors. The Steelers passed on moving the former third-round pick, but Rudolph will not be in uniform on game days — as long as Trubisky and Pickett are healthy.
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