The Pittsburgh Steelers will dive deep into their quarterback competition in the next few weeks when they head to Latrobe for the opening of training camp. As it stands today Mitchell Trubisky is the starter, with Mason Rudolph as his back up, and Kenny Pickett is pulling up the rear in the #3 spot. The team also has seventh round pick Chris Oladokun trying to get some reps too. That leaves them with a lot of quarterbacks, but not enough reps to go around.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks Chris Oladokun, Mason Rudolph, and Mitch Trubisky participate in phase two of the voluntary off-season workout program, Thursday, May 19, 2022 at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. | Abigail Dean / Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers throughout OTA's and mini camp let Rudolph take the reps with the second team, and Pickett was reduced to taking reps with a lot of guys who won't be around come September. It was concerning to a lot of fans, and media because the less reps for Pickett the harder it will be for him to develop. And the Steelers could need him to develop sooner rather than later. Especially considering he is already 24 years old after playing for five years in college.
Today on the 93.7 The Fan Pittsburgh reporter Josh Rowntree of the station joined co-hosts Andrew Fillipponi, and Chris Mueller to talk about the Steelers. They got onto the subject of the Steelers quarterbacks (no surprise), but Rowntree had some interesting thoughts on the current situation. And he doesn't believe the Steelers are doing it the correct way.
The conversation came about when everyone was talking about Joe Burrow and Derek Carr stepping onto the field immediately and how the results have been mainly positive. Moreso with Burrow, but regardless they were thrown into the fire right way. But for whatever reason the Steelers seem to be slow playing the situation. Especially when they keep allowing Rudolph to take reps from their quarterback of the future.
"Because why are we wasting people's time here. I believe in not wasting peoples time, and to me constantly running Mason Rudolph out there with the 2's is a waste of time," Rowntree said. "It is a waste of Mason Rudolph's time. Maybe not a full waste of his time because he's maybe just getting some extra work with some better players. But certainly, a waste of time for Kenny Pickett."
Is he wrong? There are less than 3% of Steelers fans that still believe in Rudolph. There's zero chance that anyone in the front office believes that Rudolph is the future. And if there is anyone, they have no input in any decisions. If the decision makers, Tomlin, Colbert, Khan etc. believed in Rudolph they wouldn't have selected Pickett. You don't spend a first round pick on a quarterback if you think Rudolph, is your guy. Instead, you'd give him more weapons or linemen.
"Don't you want the guy that you think is going to be the future of your franchise, the future quarterback of this franchise to play with the very best players," Rowntree said today. "Or at least be with second string players. I mean he could get some reps with George Pickens with Calvin Austin III, guys that you hope he will be throwing the football to for a long time. And he really didn't get to me that many opportunities. He did get some because they blend some things here and there but for the most part the rotation was what it was... To me it's a waste of Kenny Pickett's time, it's a waste of his talents, and to me I don't understand why that was their method in this offseason."
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett. (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)
Pittsburgh needs to allow Pickett to grow. And he needs to grow with the guys he's going to be around for the foreseeable future as Rowntree said. Not players that won't be here in September. Not practice squad guys.
If the Steelers go anywhere past week 1 of training camp with Pickett still at #3 this fanbase better hold on because Rudolph is going to be on this team for week 1. If he wasn't going to be there would be zero chance to keep holding Pickett back for him.
