Two of the biggest dominos of the offseason have fallen earlier today, at least preliminarily. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has agreed to stay put, though he is yet to officially sign a new contract extension. The Seattle Seahawks have also agreed in principle to a blockbuster trade that will send quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were probably never all that realistically in that market, but they could still very well land a veteran arm over the course of the next two weeks. One possibility is former second-overall pick Mitchell Trubisky, who spent the 2021 season on the cheap serving as Josh Allen’s backup in Buffalo. He’ll be a free agent, eligible to talk to teams in a week’s time.
He spoke to Adam Schefter recently about some potential free agent destinations for the ESPN personality’s podcast, aptly titled The Adam Schefter Podcast, and as you would expect, that list included the Steelers, who have only Mason Rudolph under contract. Trubisky was asked what comes to mind when he thinks of the franchise:
Pittsburgh Steelers, I think just like a legendary franchise. Like, you think of the black and gold you think of coach Mike Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger slinging it around. But the black and gold, just like legendary colors. A great historical franchise for the NFL. And Pittsburgh’s pretty close to home for me being from Cleveland. So, that would be pretty cool. But you think of AFC North, tough division, a lot of great quarterbacks. Just hard nose football in the AFC North. So, I got a lot of respect for Coach Tomlin and that great defense they’ve got up there.
An Ohio native, Trubisky of course grew up watching the Steelers—or watching them beat the Cleveland Browns. He wouldn’t be the first Ohio quarterback in Pittsburgh, of course. Indeed, he would be succeeding one in Roethlisberger, the Findlay native and product of Miami of Ohio.
“I think it’d be hard to get a lot of my family members to switch into those colors, but I’ve been doing it just fine”, he said. Justin Layne’s father was a huge Browns fan, but quickly adopted Steelers colors when the team drafted his son in 2019.
Though he only threw a handful of passes last season, one of which was intercepted, Trubisky is shaping up to be a pretty big name. He’s not going to land a $40 million-per-year deal, but it seems likely at this point, based on reports, that he’s going to get a very serious chance to compete to start somewhere, and with a good paycheck along with it. Things are all coming up Mitch.
“There’s been so much growth outside of football for me with getting married last year and now baby boy on the way”, he told Schefter. “And there’s also free agency so you’ve got the career side of it as well. So, it’s so exciting over here in the Trubisky house”.
“We’re excited to see what happens and we actually have free agency first”, he added, “so we gotta find out where we’re going and then find out if we’re having the baby down here in Florida, which is where we live in the offseason, or if we’re gonna have it wherever we go next for the team. But it’s exciting, we can’t wait for the baby boy to get here and me and my wife are so excited”.
All-time, Trubisky is 29-21 as a starter, all of those coming during his four seasons with the Chicago Bears in 2017-2020. He is 1016-for-1585 passing for 10,652 yards with 64 touchdowns to 38 interceptions and a career 87 passer rating.
His best season was in 2018, in year two, going 11-3 as a starter, completing two thirds of his passes for over 3000 yards with a 24-to-12 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He last started nine games in 2020, going 6-3, with a 16-to-8 TD-to-INT ratio.
