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: Why didn’t Kenny Pickett dress as the emergency quarterback on Sunday?
If you came into this article looking for a discussion about a report that may be circulating around Steelers social media circles, you’ve come to the wrong place. I don’t make it a habit of investing in these sorts of things and suffice it to say that I need something more substantial to go on.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t still find myself curious why Kenny Pickett was in street clothes for Sunday’s game. After all, head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed that he was medically cleared to play prior to the game, so we know that from a physical point of view, he could have dressed. And as a short reminder, the third, emergency quarterback position doesn’t take up a gameday roster spot. He’s officially an inactive.
It’s not as though Tomlin didn’t address this exact question Monday, but let’s talk about his answer for a moment. And let’s start by going back to that answer. “That clarity didn’t come until later in the week”, he said. “And it was about the distribution of reps and who was best prepared and positioned to help us win. And so that’s the direction that we went with”.
…Okay. So what does that have to do with choosing to not dress a third quarterback? Is he suggesting that the team was in better position to win by not dressing Pickett, who would only have been eligible to go into the game if both Mason Rudolph and Mitch Trubisky were forced out by injuries?
So who would put the Steelers in better position to win under those circumstances than Pickett? Tomlin did elaborate further when specifically asked why he wasn’t dressed as the emergency quarterback. I’m curious who buys his answer.
He first referenced the unlikelihood of needing an emergency quarterback (and they haven’t had once since Pickett’s injury, mind you), but he also mentioned “the risk in terms of what I didn’t see from him”, adding, “it would’ve been speculating”.
Frankly, I don’t even know what this means, for sure. I gather he’s talking about health and the risk of re-injury, but what is there to speculate about? When has he ever gone against his medical staff before? I can’t recall another example in his 17 years here.
Something doesn’t quite add up for me, but then again, Tomlin doesn’t always seem to know exactly what he’s doing. He has dressed fewer people than allowed to before because he didn’t understand the rules. I don’t think there’s any conspiracy here, but I still find his rationale for not dressing Pickett specious. Not that it’s a big deal, but I struggle to find a good football or medical reason for not dressing Pickett. It’s not like he hasn’t been on the practice field the past couple weeks.
