While the Pittsburgh Steelers made the decision to sign veteran quarterback Mitchell Trubisky to a two-year contract in free agency, the deal that they signed him to certainly couldn’t be portrayed as binding or backbreaking. At its base is a $14.25 million value, with the potential to rise to about $27 million in total value in incentives, much of it derived from playing time, but not exclusively.
Assuming that he is the starter throughout the 2022 season, then, yes, he probably will get a decent chunk of extra money, perhaps to the tune of a few million, for his playing time. But ultimately, I don’t think anybody is banking on him becoming a franchise guy in his sixth season. Executives around the league certainly aren’t.
From a broad article over at The Athletic, a couple of anonymous executives were asked about the Steelers’ decision to sign Trubisky, and whether or not there was upside in that signing. They are not impressed.
“I don’t see it”, one said. “If everyone is saying Trubisky took a step back and got some better coaching and is in a better environment, what makes us think Pittsburgh has the coaching environment to bring out the best in Trubisky now that he has a fresh start? Because last I checked, Brian Daboll is the coach of the Giants, not the Steelers”.
Pittsburgh isn’t exactly known for developing quarterbacks, even considering the fact that they had an entrenched starter for 19 years. Their offensive coordinator has been in the league for three years, or at least is going into his third year, his second in that role. Mike Sullivan was added as their quarterback coach last year.
“All of a sudden, we have revitalized this guy”, the article quotes another executive as saying about Trubisky. “He completed 6 of 8 passes for 43 yards on the season. He got in their game against Indy and threw the ball right to the defense for an interception”.
While those numbers are accurate, it is of course an extremely small sample size. Whether he threw eight touchdowns or eight interceptions, it won’t tell you everything there is to know about what he would look like over 70 snaps in a game, let alone 17 games in a season.
Of course, it’s never good to looking underwhelming under any sample size. And it’s also not good to barely play at all for a year. Trubisky has said all the right things this offseason, but everybody should be going into this with open eyes, recognizing that this is probably not going to end with him winning a Super Bowl MVP trophy.
