How Long Can Mitch Trubisky Keep Kenny Pickett on the Steelers Bench?

Julian Martinez: [00:00:12] James Kyle. For the first time since 2007, there will not be a rookie starting quarterback in week one, as Kenny Pickett has officially lost a starting job to Mitch Biscay. And we covered this a couple of weeks ago and I said that I think the Steelers can get by with Mitch Trubisky. I mean, I still think it's an improvement over Ben Roethlisberger, what he was to that team last year. But can you pick it? Didn't really lose the job in preseason. He performed well each of the games that the Steelers ran him out there. James, were you surprised by the result, the pick? It didn't end up with the starting job. [00:00:46][33.8]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:00:47] Not even slightly because I don't think any of the guys really like Off the Gun were made to be starting quarterbacks day one. I think there were some talent. I think they were all developmental and they would have been like Quarterback five and any other draft class, but especially Kenny Pickett. He had so many things to work on. He had one really good year. Did he show the improvement that he was like throwing the ball quick, whatever. But overall, you got to go with the guy who gives you the best chance to win and that burn saying that that's Mitch Trubisky. That's weird to say and I don't like that Kyle. [00:01:14][27.9]
Julian Martinez: [00:01:15] Does Mitch Trubisky give them the best chance to win? [00:01:17][2.0]
James Puopolo: [00:01:19] I don't know enough about Kenny Pickett. I'm usually in the camp of you should always start the rookie if you draft them in the first round because you're delaying an inevitable growing process that if you drafted a guy in the first round anyways, what is for weeks really going to save you in terms of waiting to play him? I think that it doesn't make a difference either way. I also said that Mike Tomlin knows better than I when it comes to deciding who the starting quarterback is going to be. I just use the general rule of start, the first round rookie quarterback. We talk about Pickett's development and I find that interesting because he's only like five months younger than Lamar Jackson, which is weird that he's basically a fully not a fully formed quarterback, but pretty close to whatever a fully formed Kenny Pickett is going to look like. So I don't know exactly what the move for the Steelers is. I did find interesting that that Pickett was listed as the third string quarterback on the depth chart. I thought that was an interesting little note from the Steelers announcing Trubisky as the starters that Mason Rudolph is the second stringer though. But Tomlin will make the move that I guess he thinks is suited best. And Mike Tomlin's right more often than he's wrong. So I guess he's one of those like seven coaches that I actually have faith in. We'll get it right in the long run, even if that means by week six we're seeing Pickett play. Basically, all three quarterbacks are going to play some amount of downs for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. Whether it's Trubisky, Rudolph and Pickett, all three will play at some point during the season. [00:02:44][85.2]
Julian Martinez: [00:02:45] That's really interesting. I didn't even know that that Pickett was listed third on the depth chart behind Mason Rudolph. At first, when I posed this question to you guys, I was wondering how much leash does Mitch have in order for Pickett to get in there? But now I'm looking at the Steelers can't realistically run out Mason Rudolph and they. [00:03:01][16.3]
James Puopolo: [00:03:02] They were trying to trade him during the lead up to the roster cuts and just nobody wanted him so I don't think they're necessarily in love with Mason Rudolph themselves, but they also weren't in a position to cut him. I don't think he's going to play significant minutes. And at the same time, I suspect that we'll see Mason Rudolph playing snaps for the Pittsburgh Steelers at some point during the season. It might only be like ten, 15, 20. He might only play in one or two games, but I think we're going to see Mason Rudolph at some point. And then somewhere along the line they're going to make the turnover and say It's Pickett's team through and through. He's starting and we're just going to go through the growing pains, which suggests to me that the Steelers are kind of anticipating a seven win season this year a little bit. [00:03:43][41.4]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:03:44] Kyle, what you're telling me is they're going to run Mason Rudolph like Taysom Hill. Not the way I. [00:03:51][7.0]
James Puopolo: [00:03:51] Like to think of it more like Brett Rypien, where. [00:03:53][2.2]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:03:54] It's like I said, it's Thursday Night Football, which. [00:03:57][3.7]
James Puopolo: [00:03:58] Is like questionable to play and they just are like, Yeah, we don't care about this game. We're playing the Indianapolis Colts or something. Let's just throw Mason out there to get Mitch healthy, even though it doesn't matter because Mitch is not going to be the starter beyond week eight. [00:04:11][13.6]
Julian Martinez: [00:04:12] From my understanding. I heard this report a couple of weeks ago too. In the Steelers situation, Kenny Pickett doesn't really come across great in practice, for whatever that's worth. In practice, it means a lot more to guys in the NFL building than it means to guys like us talking on our podcast platform right now. So I'm curious what he would have to do to beat out Mason on the depth chart from a practice point of view without game action, because it's felt like to me, at least outside of perspective, that where Pickett was really separating was in the preseason. We're seeing him put up these gaudy numbers in the preseason. We're like, Dan, is Mitch really going to lose this job right now? And it made sense when you were really just comparing the raw numbers. So it's here that he's by. Mason tells me that Tomlin is putting a lot of stock in that and kind of changes this around a little bit in my mind. I'm looking through the Steelers schedule and I'm thinking like, okay, they face the Bengals week one. Let's assume the Bengals are as good as they were last. Sure. Okay. So that's probably a loss, probably a winnable game. The next weekend's Patriots Browns get a week with the Browns where they don't have Deshaun under center for them. So they could probably win that. They could in theory, start two and one. And then you're don't really have questions about benching Mitch. Then you have the Jets, you know, when that you go three and one and Mitch still has that leash going bills put you back down to three two, buccaneers push you back down to Earth, three and three get the Dolphins. That's going to be a make or break game for the playoffs, potentially three and four. If you go on a three game losing streak right there, then that is that. Like where you ready to press the eject button? What do you guys think? [00:05:42][90.3]
James Puopolo: [00:05:43] I think that there is a very minimal chance that Mitchell Trubisky will not at the very least be questionable to play by the time we get to that week seven game. Like he ain't going to make it fully healthy through week seven because Mitchell Trubisky has never had a fully healthy season in his NFL career up to this point. And like you said, the leash is already kind of short. I doubt that Mitchell Trubisky is going to have maybe he has a game that like wows us with four touchdowns, but there's also going to be a game where he has one touchdown, three interceptions and they're already calling for the rookie. That's almost a guarantee to happen at some point because it happens to every quarterback. What it tells me and how the schedule breaks down for the Steelers is that they they view Kenny Pickett more as like a high second round guy who they happen to take late in the first round because he wasn't going to fall to them in the second round. And therefore they're looking at him as like a low end starter for the future because otherwise they would be kind of like clamoring to put him in. I would suggest the fact that they're treating him the way like the Rams treated Jared Goff in 2016 is not the greatest sign in terms of confidence for Pickett. And like you said, we're guys on a podcast who don't have the same access to information, perhaps, that reporters and Mike Tomlin may have. [00:06:53][70.7]
Julian Martinez: [00:06:54] James, do you think we get 17 games of Mitch Biscay then? [00:06:56][2.5]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:06:57] I mean, as a browser, that's bad. I hope so. I really do know. I don't think there's any way you get 17 full games of Mr. Biscay. There is the injury standpoint. That's like Kyle said, nailed that one does talent wise. Where where did this come from that we're pretending that Mitch Trubisky is this almighty being out of nowhere just because he ended up in Pittsburgh the second he signed with Pittsburgh in the offseason, everyone was talking about him being this like, oh, you know what? We should give you the was it that bad? He was bad. He had one good year and then a lot of bad. I think what it is they're going to just cut in. [00:07:32][35.4]
Julian Martinez: [00:07:33] I think what it is, is just people just look at the situation he went to out the gate. He went to the Bears who have never had a franchise quarterback in their existence. Maybe he was supposed to be a first round pick, but just ended up in a bad spot. [00:07:46][13.1]
James Puopolo: [00:07:47] But also he was kicked out. He was picked before Mahomes and Watson, which was always the thing that was carrying him and then ran away for a year and we forgot about him. [00:07:55][7.9]
Julian Martinez: [00:07:55] Sometimes the best thing to do in those situations, I guess, is disappear because you come back stronger after a year. Hey, maybe ask pays off for someone like a Jimmy Garoppolo paid off or Trubisky paid off or Mariota. Jameis Winston got to hide away for a year and it paid off for him. So maybe that's just the new strategy for guys who fire Favre in the first round. If I have to call my shot, I will say week ten, we get some Kenny Pickett because I think they're just going to start to well with Mitch based off that early season schedule. Sorry, James to Mitch Obaseki is Mitch Trubisky, but Jacoby Brissett is Jacoby Brissett. So I'm going to pick them. They win that week three game. [00:08:30][35.4]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:08:31] If you're not telling me that you're looking forward to the high powered shoot out of Brissett versus Trubisky. [00:08:36][4.9]
Julian Martinez: [00:08:38] I bet we seen Trubisky attempt a deep pass. I don't remember the last time I saw Brissett do it. [00:08:43][5.5]
James Puopolo: [00:08:45] Yeah, that one's rough. That ones are up. [00:08:48][2.3]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:08:48] That's painfully fair. [00:08:49][0.8]
James Puopolo: [00:08:49] And I will also note Steelers by week is week nine. So they play eight games, then they have the bye week. That will be the time where we know whether Mitch Trubisky will be playing the rest of the season or Mason Rudolph. But more likely Mitch Trubisky will be playing the rest of the season as Steelers quarterback. [00:09:06][17.1]
Julian Martinez: [00:09:07] All right, guys, you probably notice the segment's a little different. Not just Kyle and I, but we also joined by guest James James from Bota. James, we need you to drop all the obligatory plugs. That way, people know where to find you. [00:09:18][11.3]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:09:19] Hey. Well, thank you for having me. You can find us everywhere at Bota sports. Bota, Instagram, Tik Tok is the biggest one. There's also a Twitter, but it's really not worth them. 500% honest about it. Yeah, you can find all of our stuff everywhere just by searching about esports. [00:09:34][15.3]
Julian Martinez: [00:09:35] Okay, guys, find that below in the bio we a like on this video subscribe to the channel from juju talk sports and Kyle Ledbetter. Stay safe, happy and healthy. We'll see you on the next one. [00:09:35][0.0]
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