Well count Pro Football Focus as nonbelievers when it comes to Pittsburgh Steelers new quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. In their annual quarterback rankings, they project Trubisky to one of their lowest ranking tiers: Tier E - LET’S NOT GET OUR HOPES UP.
Mitchell Trubisky practices during voluntary workouts in Pittsburgh / Steelers.com
There are three other quarterbacks joining Trubisky in that category. Carson Wentz, Macus Mariota, and Sam Darnold. All of which were linked to the Steelers over the past two seasons.
***Note: These are tiers, not rankings. So, the quarterbacks within each tier are ranked against each other, not every quarterback. For example, we are not comparing Matt Ryan (Tier A) to Patrick Mahomes (Tier B).***
1. CARSON WENTZ, WASHINGTON COMMANDERS2. MARCUS MARIOTA, ATLANTA FALCONS
3. MITCHELL TRUBISKY, PITTSBURGH STEELERS
4. SAM DARNOLD, CAROLINA PANTHERS
Wentz leads the group with an 82.2 grade over the last five seasons, but he has been spiraling downward since his almost-MVP 2017 season. His 84.9 grade in 2017 was fifth overall that season and it was the high watermark so far in his career. The 2020 season was the low point of his career (65.0 overall grade) but even with a slight bump up to 70.9 last year, he could not lift the Colts into the playoffs with a good group of offensive players.
Even his bump back up to over 70.0 was potentially inflated by metrics that are generally unstable. He ranked in the 73rd and 70th percentiles in grade under pressure and late-down grade. In two key stable metrics — clean pocket grade and early-down grade — he was 25th and 17th, respectively.
Mariota remains a competent starting option but has not played more than 1,000 snaps in a season since 2017. Trubisky and Darnold are not viable starting options.
As you can see author Seth Galina states that 'Trubisky and Darnold are not viable starting options.' It's pretty impossible for someone to make that assessment when Trubisky hasn't played a single down for the Steelers. And he hasn't started a game in two years. But if he comes out and plays anything like Darnold did last season the Steelers would be in big trouble.
Now even if Trubisky is as bad as they say at PFF, the Steelers do have someone that isn't listed on these rankings in Kenny Pickett. Pickett will be entrenched in a preseason battle with Trubisky and shouldn't be that hard to win if he's as bad as this list indicates.
There are 22 quarterbacks listed ahead of the four in Tier E on their listing. Even names like Jameis Winston, and Drew Lock are in one Tier above. So take this list with a grain of salt. There isn't any way possible that Trubisky could be worse than Lock.
