Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett suffered a rib injury in the team’s 20-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, and with Pittsburgh having a short week before a Week Nine matchup against the Tennessee Titans, Pickett’s status is in question. NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport confirmed as much during a segment on Good Morning Football today, saying that there isn’t much optimism Pickett can go on Thursday.
“No full word yet on how Pickett is, gonna see how he is today, how he wakes up, how he rebounds. They have a short week, I do not sense a lot of optimism that Kenny Pickett would be able to go on Thursday. That likely means Mitch Trubisky would be the starter for the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Rapoport said.
It would be Trubisky’s first start of the season, but he does have five starts under his belt last season with Pittsburgh, including in Week 14 against the Panthers in relief of an injured Pickett. This is now the fourth injury Pickett has suffered in his career, as he had two concussions last season and a knee injury earlier this year, suffered in Week Four. It’s a worrisome trend that he’s now left four of his 19 starts with an injury, although it doesn’t sound like this rib injury is too serious.
The fact that Pittsburgh has a short week seems to be the bigger hangup about Pickett’s availability. He’d have two more full days to rest had Pittsburgh played next Sunday, but with the team needing to get right back to work ahead of Thursday’s matchup, Pickett doesn’t have a lot of time for rehab and recovery.
Trubisky is a solid backup, but Thursday will be a real test as Pittsburgh goes up against the Titans, who will presumably be led by QB Will Levis, who threw for four touchdowns in his NFL debut on Sunday. The offense has continued to be a concern for the Steelers, and we’ll see if Trubisky can find something to help turn the unit around.
Falling to 4-4 with four divisional games left on the schedule won’t be a great sign for Pittsburgh’s chances of competing down the stretch. It’s tough timing for a Pickett injury, as he played some of his best football of the season in the fourth quarter of Week Seven and led an impressive drive in the second quarter yesterday, although it led to three points instead of seven. But Pickett seemed to be finding some sort of spark, and now he’ll likely miss time and reset some of that progress.
