Steelers fans need to stop with the chants for Mitch Trubisky

The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming off a win with Mitch Trubisky at the helm, and too many fans don’t want Kenny Pickett to get his job back. 

It is remarkable how quickly fans can change their opinions. After a three-interception game against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 14 with Kenny Pickett absent with a concussion, Pittsburgh Steelers fans were banging the table for Mason Rudolph to start against the Carolina Panthers. Just one week later, the script flipped on its head once again.

Mitch Trubisky played an excellent game this past Sunday — completing 17 of 22 passes for 8.1 yards per attempt. While Pittsburgh was able to pound the rock 45 times, it was clear that the veteran quarterback did enough to lead his team to victory — even without throwing a touchdown pass or surpassing 180 yards).

Because of the encouraging results this week, fans (and even some in the media) are suddenly back to believing that Trubisky should be the starting quarterback over the final three games — even if Pickett is healthy and ready to go.

Steelers must start Kenny Pickett if healthy

Their reasoning is relatively simple: they believe that Mitch Trubisky gives the Steelers the best chance to win their final football games. That may or may not be a fair assessment. Honestly, I don’t know how much any of these three quarterbacks move the needle at this point. However, fans need to ask themselves: what are we playing for?

Even if the Steelers win all three games to close the season, they would have just a 4 percent chance of making the playoffs (which can vary depending on how other AFC teams perform down the stretch). The point is, they aren’t making the tournament this year.

Instead of watching the Steelers string together a few wins with a quarterback who might not be here next year, isn’t it more important to get Kenny Pickett as many reps as possible in an effort to help his development heading into his second season?

Assuming Pickett is healthy and ready to go, there’s no reason to have him holding a clipboard on the sidelines. Whether you believe in him or not (I’m certainly on the fence still), he’s the player the Pittsburgh Steelers selected in the first round and the guy who will be under center for the next few years, at the very least.

This team genuinely needs to see what they have in Pickett. While he probably doesn’t have the tools to be an elite quarterback, he could be a franchise QB under the right circumstances.

With the sad state of this team in 2022, it’s far more important to start building a team that can win in the future rather than one that can win some meaningless games down the stretch. In today’s league, quarterbacks are on a short leash, and Pickett needs all the opportunities he can get to prove himself one way or the other.