Aaron Rodgers is not coming to Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson isn’t going to be their new quarterback, either. How about Kirk Cousins? Nope. Carson Wentz? That ship has sailed, as well. Many major chess pieces have already had their 2022 fate decided, though the team with arguably the biggest quarterback need has yet to be involved in any despite being connected—correctly or otherwise—to nearly all of them.
Make no mistake, there are still plenty of options out there, some more palatable than others. While at this point I do no anticipate that they will make a trade offer for the Houston Texans’ Deshaun Watson, they could try to trade for Jimmy Garoppolo.
But among the many names of quarterbacks who will actually be unrestricted free agents, the biggest seems to be former second overall pick Mitchell Trubisky, who served as backup to Josh Allen with the Buffalo Bills last year. He has had a lot of buzz, and it feels as though he could potentially land a starting job, with a nice contract alongside it. National writers keep connecting the dots to Pittsburgh.
Dan Graziano, for example, listed Pittsburgh as a team with potential interest, in an ESPN Insider blurb discussing the New York Giants’ connection with Trubisky, having hired former Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as head coach.
“It’s true that new New York Giants coach Brian Daboll… has at least some interest in bringing Mitchell Trubisky with him to East Rutherford as a backup who could potentially be the Ryan Tannehill to Daniel Jones’ Mariota”, he wrote, “but it also seems likely that some team (Steelers?) would be able to offer more money, plus a clearer path to a starting job, than the Giants can”.
This was not the only reference of the day connecting the quarterback with the AFC North team still searching for one. Peter King briefly acknowledged the connection in his Football Morning in America column in which he opined that it would be a mistake for the Giants to sign him to starter money with Daniel Jones in the picture.
“If someone (Steelers, Saints, Seahawks) offers Trubisky lowball starting money—two years, $25 million plus incentives, say—the Giants need to let him go”, he wrote. “He should be a candidate only if he’d take legit backup money. Say, two years, $15 million. The second year is important because if Jones doesn’t play well enough this year and the Giants need a veteran to play alongside a draftee in 2023, they have the option for Trubisky to start next year”.
King also noted that he is not likely to sign with the Giants “if he has a better chance to play somewhere else in 2022”, and Pittsburgh would fit that. For his part, he has previously told Adam Schefter this offseason on the ESPN reporter’s podcast that it “would be pretty cool” to don the black and gold.
