During the Annual League Meetings, Mike Tomlin confirmed that the Pittsburgh Steelers will stick with Mitch Trubisky as the backup quarterback in 2023, while Kenny Pickett starts. Trubisky had a rough time as the starter for the Steelers, but performed well while filling in for Pickett while he was injured. However, with only two quarterbacks on the roster, the Steelers will continue to search for depth. They normally enter camp with four quarterbacks, so the team will still be looking for quality depth behind Pickett and Trubisky.
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Steelers 2023 quarterbacks Mitch Trubisky (10) Kenny Pickett (8) and Mason Rudolph (2).
Trubisky was originally named the starter before the 2022 season, but sub-par performances and an argument with Diontae Johnson sealed his fate as the backup behind Pickett. After Pickett suffered a concussion against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Trubisky showed his worth and helped lead the Steelers to a 20-18 upset. While he later struggled filling in against the Baltimore Ravens, he once again showed his worth by methodically ripping the Carolina Panthers' defense apart all game, including on the longest drive in the NFL.
Like Omar Khan at the NFL Combine, Mike Tomlin also says he expects Mitch Trubisky back for for the 2023 season. Trubisky is a free agent in 2024.
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) March 26, 2023
Re: third QB, Tomlin says he doesn't know the plan at this point, but they'll sort it out.
The Steelers chose to stick with Trubisky during the 2023 free agent period, even though he costs $10.625 million against the cap, and cutting him would've saved $8 million. While he is definitely one of the better backups in the league, it was a bit of a risk to keep a backup with that high of a cap hit, although it turned out to be a good choice, as backups like Taylor Heinicke received around $10 million per year. While keeping Trubisky is an expensive move, it appears to be the right move.
Mason Rudolph provided great depth at quarterback, but he is a free agent and doesn't want to come back to Pittsburgh. He lost the chance to at least be active each week after Trubisky and Pickett took over at QB1 and QB2. The former third rounder struggled to develop after three different unfortunate scenarios in 2019 while he was taking over for Ben Roethlisberger. Since then, he was the primary backup until 2022. With him leaving, the Steelers are hoping to find someone solid, just in case they happen to unfortunately have a repeat of 2019.
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Steelers' Mason Rudolph tries to stiff arm Bobby Wagner in 2019.
How would the Steelers find more depth for the quarterback position?
The Steelers could try and get another veteran presence for an offense that is still young. They could try and give the vet minimum to someone like Chase Daniel, or they could sign Brian Hoyer, who's been praised by the New England Patriots for basically being another coach on the roster, similar to when Joshua Dobbs was a Steeler. They could try to snag a former division rival in Brandon Allen to try and do a little bit more than acting as depth.
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The most likely scenario would be the Steelers using a day three pick on a young quarterback. With only three picks on the last day, they would have to make a crucial decision on when they want to draft one. They could use their fourth-round pick on someone like Clayton Tune, or they could use one of their seventh rounders on someone that could potentially fall to them, like Stetson Bennett IV. They have plenty of options, but don't expect to use a pick in the first three rounds to be on a backup, even if Trubisky does not stay in Pittsburgh once the 2023 season ends.
What do you think of the Steelers' backup quarterback situation? Let us know down in the comments.
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