The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Would Kenny Pickett start this week if deemed healthy enough?
Head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to reporters yesterday during his weekly press conference. Despite what most of the media seemed to run with, he did not crown Mason Rudolph the starting quarterback for Sunday. In more practical terms, he said that Rudolph would prepare this week as the starter barring a strong positive development for Kenny Pickett.
Pickett has missed the last three games due to an ankle injury but should have a realistic shot of returning to play this week based on the original injury timeline. It gets more complicated when weighed against Rudolph’s performance last week, however.
The third-string quarterback for most of the past two seasons, he took the field for meaningful snaps last Saturday for the first time since 2021. All he did with the opportunity was author the best game by a Steelers quarterback since prior to Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement.
Given that context, one might assume that Pickett has to be more than just healthy enough to play. He needs to be healthy enough to potentially play a better game than Rudolph. And many would currently argue that’s debatable even on his best day—recency bias aside.
Let’s say Pickett finishes this week of practice strong while getting mixed in with first-team reps. He looks mobile and able to protect himself, largely picking up where he left off in the game prior to his injury when the Steelers put up 400 yards of offense and seemed on the cusp of putting up big points.
You could boil the question down to this: How strongly do the Steelers feel about what they saw on the field from Rudolph last week? Many interpreted Tomlin’s comments Tuesday as a veiled way to protect Pickett’s self-confidence while benching him. The assumption is that under no circumstances will he be deemed healthy enough to play, at least publicly. But what if he is healthy enough? How can he be your quarterback of the future if he’s not your quarterback of the present?
