Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky has become the clear favorite to open the 2022 regular season against the Cincinnati Bengals on September 11. In fact, you will be hard-pressed at this point to find very many major media NFL analysts who believe otherwise and that includes Tony Romo of CBS Sports.
During a Tuesday night appurtenance on The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Radio, Romo was asked if he thinks the Steelers will go with Trubisky or rookie Kenny Pickett to open the 2022 season.
“I think you’ll see Trubisky start, Romo said. “I mean like once you’ve been in the league for a while, you have such an advantage over someone else coming in learning a system. I mean it’s really hard for a youngster to learn. When you have a guy who’s been in the league for three or four years, I mean he has a very big advantage on just terminology, communication in the huddle, just overall. That’ll be tough I think to start by that point but doesn’t mean that he can’t later on.”
It certainly is hard to argue with Romo’s reasoning when it comes to him choosing Trubisky over Pickett. Barring an injury or the newcomer veteran just having an awful training camp and preseason, Romo is likely going to be right. All that said, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin still maintains that the starting job for 2022 is an open competition.
After making that declaration on Trubisky, Romo was immediately asked if he thinks the former first round draft pick of the Chicago Bears can turn his career around with the Steelers.
“Well, I think Pittsburgh’s a great franchise,” Romo started. “They’ve always shown the ability to win. I mean this Mike Tomlin now; he’s gone how many years without a losing season? Has he had one losing [season]? I don’t even know the stat. But it’s like in 20 years he may not have a losing season or only one. I mean, it’s crazy. And I know Big Ben was there for a long time, but I do think coach Tomlin always figures out a way. I mean, even the year Ben went down, still got to like .500 or better. I mean that’s insane, and he’ll figure it out.”
Obviously, Romo is referring to the Steelers in 2019 when the team lost starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the year to an elbow injury just six quarters into the season. The Steelers managed to go 8-8 that season with two very inexperienced quarterbacks in Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges. While the Steelers missed the playoffs that season, it’s hard to not think that head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t overachieve with the cards the team was dealt.
The Steelers signed Trubisky to a two-year, $14.285 million contract back in March and that deal includes various incentives, some of which are related to playing time. At this point, and as Romo seemingly indicated Tuesday night, there’s every reason to expect that Trubisky will open the 2022 regular season as the Steelers starter and the team will see how things go from there.
