After Mike Tomlin said that Kenny Pickett would be challenged with competition in 2024, the logical next question was “Who will that competition be?”.
It seems almost a sure thing at this point that Mitch Trubisky will be cut for salary cap purposes, leaving a hole at the backup quarterback position behind Kenny Pickett. Mason Rudolph would be a logical fit to slide into that role, but he’s a free agent, and likely wants to cash in as much as he can after his stellar performance to close the season.
One ever-present option is the NFL Draft. The Steelers held onto most of their own draft picks, only losing their fifth-round pick in the Kevin Dotson trade. They have an extra fourth-round pick from the Rams, from that same trade.
When asked if he would pay attention to scouting quarterbacks over the next few months, Mike Tomlin had this to say in his end-of-year presser via the team’s YouTube.
“I always do. You know, I’m personnel buff.” Tomlin admitted. “I don’t think you can be in this profession and not be into personnel, not have knowledge of people that play for you, play against you, in particularly at the quarterback position. I enjoy it.”
The most likely route forward for the Steelers QB room seems to be this: Kenny Pickett, a draft pick or undrafted/later-round rookie, and a stable veteran. Rudolph could very well be the veteran, or the team could go grab an outside free agent, such as Jacoby Brissett.
As for the draft, it feels like the Steelers have a few too many other positions of need to take a quarterback in the first few rounds, unless someone they love slips to them, or they don’t believe in Kenny Pickett. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if they used one of those fourth-round picks on a quarterback. This would be similar to what they did in 2017, when they had two third-round picks, and then used their fourth-rounder on Josh Dobbs.
In the coming months, there will be plenty of quarterbacks tied to the Steelers, especially through the draft. We’ll have to see how things develop, but there does seem to be a decent amount of mid-late-round quarterbacks who had stellar college careers that make sense for this team. Be sure to follow our draft coverage, where we will have plenty of player profiles to go over these prospects prior to the draft and get to know them better at the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl.
