Steelers All 90: QB Mitch Trubisky
All 90 is a Pittsburgh Steelers Now series profiling each of the 90 members of the Steelers 2022 offseason roster.
10 • Mitch Trubisky, sixth-year quarterback, North Carolina
6-foot-2, 220 pounds, 27 years old
Acquired: Signed by the Steelers as an unrestricted free agent on March 17, 2022.
Last season: Trubisky spent the 2021 season as the backup in Buffalo. He played in six games, but did not have more than 10 snaps if any of them. One the season, he completed six of eight passes for 75 yards and rushed 13 times for 34 yards. He was intercepted once.
An athletic quarterback like starter Josh Allen, Trubisky said he learned from Allen’s balance between being a pocket passer and an athlete on the edge, and learned from the same coaching staff that developed Allen into a star.
Career: Trubisky was taken by the Bears, traded up to get him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft out of North Carolina. But things did not go well in his tenure in Chicago.
After Trubisky supplanted starter Mike Glennon in his rookie season, the Bears fired head coach John Fox and replaced him with Matt Nagy, and the marriage between quarterback and coach never seemed to be a happy one, despite a Pro Bowl season by Trubisky in 2018.
In 2020, the Bears traded for Nick Foles, declared Trubisky’s job open for competition and declineD his fifth-year option. Trubisky won the job but was later benched and left Chicago after the season. Nagy was fired one year later.
College: Trubisky redshirted as a freshman and then spent two years backing up Marquise Williams before taking the reigns as a redshirt junior in 2016. He took advantage of the opportunity, making 13 starts. He completed 304 of 447 passes (68%) for 3,748 yards, 30 touchdowns and six interceptions.
The Tar Heels started 7-2 and were ranked No. 15 before losses to rivals Duke and NC State in the final three weeks of the season.
Camp outlook: Trubisky will be battling Mason Rudolph and Kenny Pickett for the Steelers’ starting quarterback job during training camp, but the free agent will have several advantages.
He has the most extensive NFL experience of the trio and while Rudolph has been in Matt Canada’s offense longer, Trubisky spent all of OTAs and minicamp as the team’s first-team quarterback, dominating the reps with the fellow starters.
Future: Trubisky has a two-year contract with the Steelers and is due a significant raise in the second year. He’ll make $1.035 million in 2022 and $8 million in 2023, with a $5.25 million signing bonus paid season.
The rest of the 90: