We oftentimes see in the NFL landscape an established veteran at a certain spot who seems to get his feathers ruffled based on team draft picks, and this rings true more at quarterback than probably any other position. We’ve all heard the stories in the Brett Favre-Aaron Rodgers saga, or even this year, with the Tennessee Titans’ Ryan Tannehill and Malik Willis. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case regarding Steelers’ first-round QB Kenny Pickett, who’s in an open competition with free-agent signee Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph to be the starter.
“There’s no better guys to learn than the guys that are here that either have done it or that I’m trying to learn from and asking Mitch and Mason as many questions as I can,” Pickett said earlier on 93.7 The Fan.
Trubisky has seen more success in his career than Rudolph, and also boasts a much higher pedigree, as he was the #2 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. He also led the Bears to two postseason berths in 2018, his lone Pro Bowl year, and in 2020, both of which were losses.
Pickett was viewed by many as the most-pro ready QB in this year’s draft crop, and has already played in a pro-style system while at Pitt, under the tutelage of offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who also happened to be the QB coach for the Steelers when another rookie QB by the name of Ben Roethlisberger was drafted by the team.
Initially, there doesn’t appear to be any tensions between Pickett and Trubisky, who’s been on record saying he was not aware of the team’s plans to draft a QB, but it certainly shouldn’t have came as much of a surprise. It’ll be interesting to see how things unfold over the summer, as the two share a lot of the same physical attributes, one of them being a desired mobility at the position. For now, Pickett stated he’s looking to soak up as much information as he can from Trubisky, as the competition will undoubtedly heat up later this summer at training camp.
“It’s just little small things here and there. It’s not a formal sit-down like ‘hey man, can you give me all the secrets?’. Like I’m going through plays, I’m like ‘hey, what’d you see here, why’d you do this, what footwork do you like to use here?’. And we’re kind of working together and everyone’s getting better, so it’s good competition.”
