Saunders: Steelers Don’t Have a QB Controversy — Yet

PITTSBURGH — Mike Tomlin said all offseason that he did not want to “blow in the wind” when it came to making his decision about who would play at quarterback and when for the Pittsburgh Steelers this season.

Six weeks in, and he’s on the verge of looking like one of those red tube guys announcing a mattress sale.

Mitch Trubisky replaced Kenny Pickett at quarterback on Sunday after Pickett suffered a concussion in the third quarter with the Steelers leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Trubisky led the Steelers to one touchdown drive, extending the lead, and then a four-minute drive that sealed it, kneeling out the clock to win the game.

Trubisky was better than Pickett against the Bucs. Trubisky was better against the Bucs than he had been in his four starts. Trubisky was better against the Bucs than Pickett’s game and a half replacing him. To this point, it’s hard to argue that Pickett has been the better of the two quarterbacks overall.

So, now what?

Tomlin entered with a purposeful plan to not waffle in his decision-making at quarterback. He wanted to start the season with Trubisky, to try to win with his defense and see if that unit was good enough to drag a mediocre offense to the postseason.

When it looked like it couldn’t, Tomlin made the move to switch to Pickett, emphasizing at the time that it was not a repudiation of Trubisky’s play, and just him looking for a new way forward for a team that was built to rely on its defense and suddenly was unable to.

“Oftentimes, the quarterback position gets too much credit and too much blame,” Tomlin said after making the switch. “We haven’t moved the ball fluidly enough to our liking. We haven’t put enough points on the board. The quarterback is a component of that, but not the only component. We’ve all got to absorb the responsibility that comes with what we haven’t done, particularly in that phase, including myself and starting with myself. 

“When you make a quarterback change, you’re really sensitive to that component of it because I don’t want to dump the responsibility of what transpired at Mitch’s feet. That’s not fair to him. He’s played better than that description.”

Pickett, obviously, will not play as long as he is still impacted by the concussion that he suffered on Sunday, and with the entire NFL world hyper-sensitized to that issue because of the injury to Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, combined with Trubisky’s success in relief, the Steelers will be absolutely sure that Pickett is ready before he’s allowed to come back. Need I remind everyone that the Steelers next game is against those Dolphins, in prime time on national television, in the game that Tagovailoa is set to return? There’s no chance they’re doing anything other than playing it safe with this one.

So what happens if Trubisky gets the start against the Dolphins, looks like the quarterback from the fourth quarter against Tampa Bay, and leads the Steelers offense to its best performance of the season?

Can he go back to the bench at that point? I can’t see how. I also can’t see how the Steelers could justify benching their first-round pick after he’s played fine if not awe-inspiring to this point.

But the play of both quarterbacks has left Tomlin without a real choice. He didn’t want to blow in the wind, but with neither quarterback taking full advantage of their opportunities, he may not have a choice.