It is unknown how much longer the Pittsburgh Steelers will have to play without their starting quarterback, Kenny Pickett. It could be anywhere between one week to next season, given that there are only four games remaining. He has already been ruled out for Saturday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts.
What they do know is that until Pickett returns, they have to figure out a way to get better play out of the quarterback position from Mitch Trubisky. “That’s what all our thoughts are about is how do we skinny down the game plan”, interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner said Wednesday, via the team’s media department, “to where he can play fast and get the ball out of his hand and get it to the playmakers? Our thoughts are always wrapped around better ways to do that”.
Over the past two games, Trubisky has averaged 2.85 seconds from snap to throw, which would rank 15th among the 45 slowest times to throw in the league, limited to qualifying quarterbacks who have had as many drop backs.
He does have one of the higher depths of target in the league at 8.9 yards per pass attempt in the air, consistent with what he has shown over the past two games. That’s not what the coaching staff wants to change. Indeed, Faulkner wants to grow from that point.
“He’s out there just slinging that thing, having fun, and playing ball”, he said, describing when the quarterback is at his best. “I think that’s what Mitch is. He’s a guy that’s gonna push the ball down the field and take shots and opportunities. Hopefully we’ll continue to build on that and what his personality is”.
Trubisky completed 22-of-35 pass attempts in last week’s start against the New England Patriots. He threw for 190 total yards with one touchdown and one interception, averaging 5.4 yards per pass attempt and a 74.7 quarterback rating. He was sacked twice while rushing for 30 yards and a touchdown on eight attempts.
“We would expect Mitch to play better, but [also] everybody else to play better”, Faulkner said.
The start came less than a week after Pickett was injured, suffering an ankle injury on that Sunday in the loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
He will have had a full week’s worth of preparation ahead of the Colts game on Saturday, however, and the team has expressed confidence that that will make a difference. Trubisky himself said this week that he needs the reps, and that shouldn’t be surprising for any player.
A backup quarterback’s job, however, is to be able to come into any game in any situation and put forth a reasonable effort that keeps his team in the game. At least in the first half, he completely failed to do that, and he didn’t do enough in the second half, either. The gunslinging didn’t really help, for that matter, so unless he slings better, I’m not very hopeful for substantial improvement.
