Why won’t the Pittsburgh Steelers reveal who their starting quarterback is?
The franchise continues to be tight lipped about who their starting signal caller will be, but if one thing is certain, it’s that it’s going to be a tough choice.
Though they may have already made a decision on who will be their starting QB, it appears the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t ready to disclose any names just yet.
Steelers’ Mike Tomlin is isn’t ready to reveal starting QB
The question as to whether the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting quarterback will be Mitchell Trubisky or Kenny Pickett, is seemingly set to remain unanswered for the moment, as head coach Mike Tomlin made it clear that he’s not ready to tell the public.
“I might, but you’re not going to have that today,” Tomlin said following Sunday’s preseason finale. “We’re not going to make knee jerk reactions and statements following a performance. We’ll go through our proper, professional procedure. ...We’ll evaluate the game. We’ll meet with our front office people. We’ll have discussions. We’ll talk internally. We’ll talk external possibilities. We’ll go through our normal procedure this time of year, and we’ll disclose it to you at our leisure, to be quite honest with you.”
Spoilt for Choice: Trubisky vs Pickett
Truth be told, the kind of headache which the Steelers have is a good one. When taking a look at Trubisky and Pickett, it doesn’t take long to see that both signal callers are in very good form at the moment. Just yesterday (Sunday) it was Trubisky who got the starting nod and he repaid the confidence with 15 of 19 passing for 160 yards and a touchdown (119.3 passer rating). Across the preseason, Trubisky posted 24 of 34 passing for 283 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions for an overall rating of 115.2 rating.
Pickett on the other hand, came into the final game of the preseason as a second half replacement. The QB would finish with 10 of 14 for 90 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 88.4. Though it could be argued that his opposition was primarily players from the second team, credit should be given where it’s due. The first round Draft pick registered 29 of 36 for 261 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a rating of 124.7. Needless to say, both Trubisky and Pickett have now put some daylight between themselves and Mason Rudolph who was also reportedly in contention for the starting job.
Who do the Steelers choose for starting QB?
At this point, the smart money would be on Trubisky to clinch the spot with Pickett coming in at No. 2. Regardless, it’s now clear that the Steelers are fortunate to have a pair of QBs who are both talented and work well together. It will be interesting to observe how two improve each other given the closeness of their relationship.
“We were both bouncing ideas off each other on what we saw when we were out there and what we thought was working so that when Mason [Rudolph] was in there, we could relay the same stuff,” Pickett said. “We have a great relationship; the whole quarterback room does. We can talk out ideas on what we see and what we don’t like. We had a really good preseason.”