The Pittsburgh Steelers released their official depth chart for the season finale yesterday, and it told a big lie. It listed Kenny Pickett atop the latest depth chart at the quarterback position, even though for the first time in weeks we already know that is not the case.
Just the day before, head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed that Pickett is finally healthy enough to play but that he would be starting Mason Rudolph in the season finale against the Baltimore Ravens. Rudolph started the previous two games and led the offense to its two best, and highest-scoring, games of the year. Tomlin said that he would let Pickett speak for himself with regard to how he’s handled the demotion. Well, the second-year quarterback spoke yesterday and was asked about it.
“As a competitor, you want the ball. I want the ball in the most crucial situations of the game. I want the ball in the biggest games of the season, and this is what you work for. This is what you do”, he said, via the team’s website. “But one man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity”.
One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity. It’s a phrase that he repeated earlier and represents how he feels his current circumstances—about which he’s almost undoubtedly not wrong. While he was not playing great football, he likely would have continued to start all along had he not suffered an ankle injury.
That injury keeping him sidelined resulted in the Steelers cycling through Mitch Trubisky for two games before turning to Rudolph, who indeed seized the opportunity Pickett’s injury and Trubisky’s struggles provided.
Pittsburgh scored 34 points and he threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns in a crucial win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Then he led the offense to a 30-point affair in a win over the Seattle Seahawks on the road, the Steelers’ first win in Seattle in four decades.
“Mason played well when he got in there. I have a ton of respect for Mason, everything he’s done, and what our team has been doing”, Pickett insisted. “Now my job that I’m back healthy is to be the backup [and], if something happens, if he goes down, be ready to go and continue to support him the way I’ve been”.
The former first-round pick confirmed that he would be the backup quarterback this week against the Ravens after being a healthy scratch and not even dressing as the emergency quarterback in the team’s last outing.
Now one has to seriously consider whether he may ever be the starter for the Steelers again. It’s unlikely, barring injury, that he plays another snap this season. And they may very well look to address the quarterback position in some significant way this offseason—including trying to re-sign Rudolph and potentially allowing him to compete outright for the starting job.
