The Pittsburgh Steelers are getting ready to host the Seattle Seahawks in their first preseason game. Here’s what Mike Tomlin confirmed the QB pecking order will look like.
The Steelers are set to play their first preseason game of 2022 on Saturday night against the Seattle Seahawks. While this exhibition game obviously won’t count towards the team’s record this year, there are a few particularly strong incentives for fans to tune in for this contest.
Fans are excited to see Pittsburgh’s rookie class in action. However, if you were hoping Kenny Pickett would get a shot with the first team offense early in the preseason, that won’t be the case.
Recently, head coach Mike Tomlin revealed in a press conference that Mitch Trubisky will be the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their first preseason contest on Saturday. Tomlin also noted that he will deploy these quarterbacks in the same order that he has throughout training camp — meaning that Trubisky will be followed by Mason Rudolph, then Kenny Pickett, Teresa Varley of Steelers.com confirms.
It’s unlikely that fourth-string QB Chris Oladokun will even see the field as he hasn’t during team sessions at camp so far.
Steelers QB battle isn’t decided just yet
If you have been following along with the reps and pecking order at Steelers training camp, this news hardly comes as a surprise. While both Rudolph and Pickett have gotten some first-team reps on occasion, Trubisky has been the quarterback primarily leading the charge with the starters.
Unfortunately, the results have been really up and down so far this summer. Trubisky has had practices where he clearly looks like the best QB option on the team and others in which he has easily been the worst.
In fact, his most recent practice on Tuesday was not a good one, as the former first-round pick failed to make any connections with his wide receivers during team sessions with the first-team offense.
This inconsistency could have the Steelers thinking. While Trubisky was brought in to be the stop-gap start for Pittsburgh following Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement, that isn’t guaranteed to be the case — especially if things continue to go south during the preseason.
With the 17-game NFL schedule now, each team only plays three preseason games (with the exception of the two teams who play in the Hall of Fame game each year). The Steelers just so happen to have three quarterbacks who all look like they are in the same tier at the moment.
It will be interesting to see if Mike Tomlin starts Mason Rudolph and Kenny Pickett, respectively, over the next two games, or if he continues to roll with Trubisky at the helm with the first team. From watching them first-hand at training camp, I can confidently say that the gap between the top three quarterbacks on Pittsburgh’s roster is not very significant at all.
Eventually, the starting job is going to belong to Kenny Pickett, but we aren’t even sure if he will get an opportunity to roll with the first team offense during the 2022 preseason. Much of that might depend on Mitch Trubiksy’s performance against the Seahawks on Saturday night. I can’t wait to watch these three signal-callers battle it out over the next three exhibition games.