Getty Kenny Pickett get tackled by the Arizona Cardinals during a Dec. 3 loss.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have long served as one of the NFL‘s model organizations, both because of how they’ve conducted themselves under head coach Mike Tomlin and because of their consistent success in both the AFC North and the league as a whole. But following Kenny Pickett’s ankle injury during a 24-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, they could be pushed to do the unthinkable and violate a major unwritten rule.
Don’t grab anyone unnecessarily in a pile-up. Try to avoid taking out players who aren’t directly involved in the action. Follow the rules of seniority by keeping quiet as a rookie and respecting the longstanding members of the league. Don’t celebrate excessively when you make a big play while on the wrong end of a lopsided score.
The list of unwritten rules goes on and on, varying from source to source. Each source, though, likely includes the fundamental idea that players shouldn’t lose their jobs while rehabbing an injury suffered during a game.
Well, the Steelers now have no choice but to seriously think about a flagrant violation of that particular guideline.
The Kenny Pickett Injury Paves the Way for a Transition to Mitchell Trubisky
Midway through the second quarter of the loss to Arizona, Pickett, already operating with tape on his previously injured right ankle, scrambled for the end zone on a third-and-goal play. Not only was he stopped short of paydirt, but he also limped off the field while receiving assistance from the training staff before going first to the injury tent and then to the locker room. He later returned to the sidelines with a boot on his right foot.
Per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac, the quarterback had to go under the knife and is now expected to miss between two and four weeks:
If Pickett returns on the early end of that window, he’d miss a Thursday Night Football outing against the New England Patriots and potentially a road game against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 15. Should the Steelers slowplay his return to the field, especially given his ever-growing injury history and prior ankle-related mishaps, he might not be able to return until the regular-season finale against the Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 7.
Either way, Pittsburgh will turn to the right arm of 2020 Nickelodeon Valuable Player Mitchell Trubisky, who completed 11 of his 17 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown in relief of Pickett against Arizona.
Trubisky made seven appearances (five starts) for Pittsburgh during the 2022 season and held his own with an 81.1 quarterback rating, a 65.0 completion percentage and four touchdowns to five interceptions through the air, also rushing for 38 yards and a pair of scores. The 29-year-old has three appearances under his belt in 2023, though it’s hard to read much into a 49-pass sample off the bench.
The Steelers Had Already Toyed With the Idea of Moving on From Pickett
Considering the Steelers are in the thick of the AFC North race at 7-5, tied with the Cleveland Browns and two games behind the Ravens for the divisional crown, Mike Tomlin and the rest of the organization’s decision-makers could opt for continuity over upside during the closing portion of the calendar.
That’s especially true if they continue to reside at the forefront of the AFC wild-card conversation, where they’re currently one of four non-division-leading squads with identical records.
Plus, it’s not like Pickett has been particularly impressive.
Since he entered the league as the No. 20 pick of the 2022 NFL draft, he’s struggled to perform at a consistently high level despite consecutive years with a 7-5 mark as the quarterback of record. His grade at Pro Football Focus has declined from 75.5 as a rookie to 70.6 as a sophomore. The NFL QB Index at NFL.com has him at No. 22 overall. So on and so forth for a signal-caller who has given little indication that he’s set to join the upper echelon of players at his position.
In fact, the Steelers themselves may have been close to pulling the plug on the experiment.
“After the Cleveland game, there was some discussion that maybe a change needed to be made at the position because of the way [Pickett] had been struggling for those three games, right up until the mess in Cleveland,” team insider Gerry Dulac reported during an appearance on the 102.5 WDVE Morning Show (h/t Steelers Depot).
But following Pickett’s 15-of-28 performance in a 13-10 loss to the Browns on Nov. 19, the Steelers elected to fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada and stick with the quarterback, who immediately rewarded them with a strong showing in a victory over the Bengals. And as Adam Caplan reported for Pro Football Network, “The biggest problem [with Canada] was the lack of development from second-year QB Kenny Pickett, who team sources said had ‘an outstanding offseason.'”
Internal team politics are internal team politics, and it’s difficult to know how serious the discussions about moving on from Pickett ever were. But if there’s even an iota of truth to them, imagine what happens if the Steelers go on a run while he recovers from ankle surgery.
Games against the Patriots (2-10), Colts (7-5), Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals (5-6) and Seattle Seahawks (6-6) are all winnable for a team with a consistently strong defense and a solid run game. And if Trubisky—or Mason Rudolph, should he get the nod and find some semblance of success under center—leads the charge and locks up a playoff berth, handing the reins back to a struggling quarterback might not be the most popular decision. It might not even be the right decision.
A legitimate scenario exists in which the Steelers could have no choice but to pretend the unwritten rule doesn’t exist.