With the debate regarding who should or will be the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers when the black and gold open up the 2022 regular season on the road at the Cincinnati Bengals Sept. 11 raging on, CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora — appearing on 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show with Colin Dunlap, Shelby Cassesse, and Chris Mack — added his take to the mix.
According to La Canfora, the Steelers should avoid throwing prized first-round rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett into the fire early in the season, instead going with veteran free agent signee Mitch Trubisky early in the season to work out some kinks in the Steelers’ offense under second-year offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
Along with Trubisky in the offseason, the Steelers added the likes of Mason Cole and James Daniels on the offensive line, and added George Pickens and Calvin Austin III at receiver, giving the Steelers some new pieces to work into the fold while adjusting the offseason from last season to this season.
That’s where Trubisky should come in as the starter, serving as a bit of a sacrificial lamb, according to La Canfora.
“I’m kind of operating on this theory and I wrote about this a little bit this week. Cause I was looking at some NFL futures and trying to find some, some potential…long shots who could bring you big value if you put a couple bucks on them. And I just started think, you know, kind of thinking about different teams and their approach. Like I don’t know that it’s not smart to kind of let Mitch Trubisky go in there first,” La Canfora said to the Morning Show, according to audio via audacity.com. “Are they that much better upfront? Do we really know what we have with this offensive line? We think a lot of these guys can maybe help the run game a little bit. And if you have to defend the quarterback in the run game, it’s going to create mismatches for us in different possibilities in our blocking scheme.
“And is that if that’s what we really need to be, to be as efficient as we want to be to do what we know we need to do, which is let this defense be the star and, and kind of go old school a little bit, our offensive philosophy and let Matt Canada put in these college concepts, in terms of some of the things they want to do with multiplicity in the run game and the mesh point and option ball,” La Canfora added. “Do you want the guy you just took in the first round kind of working through all those kinks, or would you rather be the mercenary who look, this is what you signed up for and we know your limitations in the passing game, but we understand the kind of athlete you are?”
That actually makes a ton of sense from La Canfora overall. Of course, the Pickett era in Pittsburgh needs to begin sooner rather than later, but is it truly wise to throw him into the fire right away, especially after having invested heavily in him and betting the future of the Steelers on him overall?
Probably not.
That’s where Trubisky should step in, as that sort of sacrificial lamb.
That might not be entirely fair to Trubisky overall, but he signed with the Steelers to get a shot to get back on the field as a starting quarterback, and he appears to be the frontrunner overall, for the time being. He’d likely have a short leash, but letting him get on the field and help work out the kinks offensively around him before inserting Pickett into the lineup appears to be the right call overall, should the Steelers choose to go that route early in the 2022 season.
