Analyst Believes It’s an ‘Easy Decision’ for Steelers to Cut Former Top-5 Pick

Getty Analyst expects the Pittsburgh Steelers to release Mitch Trubisky

In a year filled with issues at the quarterback position, the Pittsburgh Steelers still have a chance to work their way into the playoffs this weekend.

That opportunity has arisen thanks to a couple of surprisingly good performances from Mason Rudolph, who has gone from the team’s QB3 to likely starting the rest of the season.

However things play out the rest of the season, the Steelers are going to have some big decisions to make at QB once the offseason begins.

One of those decisions is what to do with Mitch Trubisky.

The Steelers signed the former second overall pick ahead of the 2022 season to compete with whatever rookie they ended up drafting and potentially start if the rookie wasn’t ready at the beginning of the season.

The rookie was Kenny Pickett and he definitely wasn’t ready.

Unfortunately, Trubisky didn’t make the most of the opportunity and could now be on the chopping block after two seasons with the team.

Steelers Now’s Derrick Bell believes it should be a “pretty easy decision” for the Steelers to release Trubisky.

A Bad Investment for the Steelers

The Steelers initially signed Trubisky to a two-year deal worth just under $14.3 million.

He rewarded them with 4 games as the team’s starter before he was benched for Pickett. That first year with the team saw Trubisky make 5 total starts, earning a record of 2-3.

In his appearances throughout the season, he threw for just 4 touchdowns while also throwing 5 interceptions.

Despite the poor play, the Steelers ended up giving him a new contract.

This one replaced the last year of the previous deal and had a value of $19.4 million over three years.

In the appearances he has made this year, Trubisky reminded the Steelers why they benched him in 2022.

He has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns once again this season and lasted just two games as the starter after stepping up for an injured Pickett.

The Steelers lost both of his starts, including a loss to a bad Patriots team.

It’s easy to see that Trubisky’s contracts have not been money well spent.

No Room for Mitch Trubisky

Not only has Trubisky not given the Steelers a reason to want to keep him around, but they also just likely won’t have room for him next season.

He entered this year as the backup with Mason Rudolph behind him on the depth chart. That situation worked because Rudolph was making very little money.

Now Rudolph has jumped ahead of Trubisky and the Steelers are going to have to give him a raise if they want to keep him.

Meanwhile, Trubisky would be the most expensive QB3 in football with a salary of over $5 million and a cap hit of around $7.5 million.

That would be enough to make keeping Trubisky a bad idea, but the Steelers could also end up making another move at the position.

They’ve already been linked to Baker Mayfield and Russell Wilson and the same will surely be true for Kirk Cousins once we start getting reports on his recovery timetable.

They could also look for a quarterback in the draft depending on who is available in the middle of the first round.

Whatever else they end up doing at QB this offseason, it seems pretty clear that it has to start with moving on from Trubisky even if they’ll have to eat $4.61 million in dead cap to do it