Steelers QB Overview: Kenny Pickett's First Full Year
Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers' 90-man roster is constructed, it feels like the appropriate time to start diving into the positional groups, one by one, to dissect it as a whole.
Which players are in line for starting roles? Who are the key backups? Which guys will be fighting for the final spots on the 53-man roster come September? All of those questions will be answered in this series.
Starter: Kenny Pickett
After being selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Pittsburgh allowed Pickett to compete for the starting gig in training camp last offseason before ultimately granting the job to Mitch Trubisky. It didn't take long for the Steelers to pull the plug on that experiment, with Pickett making his first appearance in Week 4 against the New York Jets. Like many young quarterbacks before him, Pickett struggled immensely out of the gate in his first handful of starts before the bye week.
After the bye week, things started to click, with Pickett looking far more comfortable in a simplified version of the offense that took some of the unnecessary and unreasonable weight off of his shoulders. As the season progressed, Pickett took better care of the football, showcasing promising decision-making to pair. He was also incredibly efficient on third downs, something that the Steelers struggled immensely with during the first half of the season.
The rookie registered 12.92 EPA/Play (expected points added) on third downs after the bye week, which ranked third in the entire NFL.
Then there were the four game-winning drives as he helped Pittsburgh beat the Raiders and Ravens with touchdown passes in waning moments of those games. As the season started to wind down, those big moments didn't seem too big for Pickett, even as a rookie. Some of his best throws of the season seemed to come in the fourth quarter, too.
There's still much to improve upon. Pickett's pocket navigation skills are inconsistent, and he, like Trubisky, couldn't quite access the middle of the field effectively, particularly against zone coverage looks. With more time and experience, you hope that he becomes a faster processor, which should lead to more anticipatory throws. Year two will undoubtedly bring higher expectations, but he's being put in a quality situation to thrive and hopefully hit his ceiling.
Key Backup: Mitch Trubisky
Trubisky signed a two-year, $14.3 million dollar deal prior to last season, but after losing his job quickly, it felt like both the team and the quarterback were approaching a crossroads of sorts. With a starter-like cap hit, the team needed to find a way to reduce that and make it more manageable by signing him to a two-year extension that runs through 2025.
There is no quarterback battle, and Trubisky's hopes of becoming a starter again in the league are essentially over, but he still finds himself in a pretty good situation as the unquestioned backup in a familiar offense with financial security for the long term.
It was important for the Steelers to provide Pickett with another veteran presence, and Trubisky provides that as a former top draft pick with over 50 starts. He even helped lead a team to the playoffs back in 2018 in his second season with Chicago. Both players have noted how close they are, which is an added bonus to the quarterback room. With Pickett already enduring two concussions during his rookie season, the need for a proven backup quarterback was really obvious.
While he's certainly one of the more physically talented backups in the league, he's also a bit more volatile as well. His performances off the bench last season were a perfect example of that. He sparked the Steelers' offense in the Tampa Bay game earlier in the season but also torpedoed their chances against Baltimore weeks later with a turnover-filled performance.
Trubisky has quality arm strength and can still make plays with his legs, but his borderline irrational confidence in himself is frustrating at times. Still, Trubisky is a really solid backup who can provide a lift, and his return is a situation that worked out well for both parties.
Fighting For a Spot: Mason Rudolph, Tanner Morgan
Rudolph, a former third-round pick in 2018, saw most of his playing time with the Steelers back In 2019 following Ben Roethlisberger's season-ending injury. He was given a chance to win the starting job last offseason but found himself as the number three on the depth chart and inactive on game days. Last year, Rudolph played well in the preseason, as you'd expect from a veteran against that level of competition.
Rudolph never quite lived up to the player that Kevin Colbert hoped he would be, but he's still a quality backup in a league desperately searching for reliability at the position. He's the heavy favorite for the QB3 spot. In fact, it seems like the only way he's not in that role this upcoming season is if he gets injured or gets traded after a strong preseason.
That brings us to Tanner Morgan, an undrafted free agent from Minnesota who played a ton of college ball across his five seasons with the Golden Gophers. Morgan's college career was a bit perplexing, as he threw 30 touchdowns as a sophomore back in 2019 but just 26 in the three years following that. Some of his weapons departed, and there were some coaching changes in there as well, but nevertheless, he certainly took an unusual path to the league.
We'll see if the Steelers add more competition to the room as the Summer progresses, but as of right now, he's likely auditioning for other teams or a practice squad spot.
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