The Pittsburgh Steelers will go into their 2024 season with some questions surrounding the quarterback position. Despite investing a 2022 first-round draft pick in Kenny Pickett, the Steelers don't seem any closer to finding their long-term solution under center. While Pickett will be battling for the starting job when the 2024 offseason begins, no one knows where Mason Rudolph will be, even though Pittsburgh has expressed a desire to bring him back. The Athletic's Mark Kaboly put forth a much more surprising opinion, that Mitch Trubisky may still be in the mix come 2024.
Steelers Could Bring Trubisky Back, Says Kaboly
The Steelers' 2023 season turned into a story of streaks, with two three-game runs defining how they finished the year. Following an apparent offensive resurgence in their 16-10 Week 12 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh boasted a 7-4 record against all odds and controlled their own playoff destiny. A second-quarter injury to Pickett in Week 13 against the Arizona Cardinals however, changed the tone drastically.
Now, there is debate on how much Pickett would have been able to do if the ankle injury hadn't occurred, but regardless, Pickett wasn't available, so in came Trubisky. Steelers fans know what happened next, with the loss to the Cardinals being the first of three that Trubisky can claim as his own. Despite turning a 7-4 record into a shaky 7-7, Kaboly sees a possibility for 2024 that doesn't necessarily match up with the popular view. Wednesday on 93.7 The Fan, Kaboly gave his opinion on how Mike Tomlin could keep Trubisky in Pittsburgh's quarterback room.
"Yeah, I think Mitch will come back. [Here's] what I think will happen with Mason: they'll try to sign him pre-free agency, and if they can do that, obviously Mason will be number one. If Mason is hell-bent on getting to free agency and looking, he'll be gone, but they could pre-empt that by trying to sign him before March 15th, which I think they will try to."
Kaboly was asked whether Tomlin's personal feelings on Trubisky, which are not exactly warm and fuzzy, would impact their keeping the backup quarterback. According to the Steelers insider, Tomlin might look past the plethora of negatives surrounding Trubisky and use logic to navigate the situation. While it still seems like a wildly unlikely scenario, considering how little they have gotten back from their investment in the former Chicago Bears' first-round draft pick, Kaboly can see Tomlin putting logic above his feelings on the subject.
"I think he [Tomlin] looks at it and says, 'He's our best option. He's under contract. It's not like he's getting paid a ton of money, and who else is out there?'"
The likely result is going to be a quarterback position battle between Pickett, possibly Rudolph, and one more name that will be brought in later. Trubisky's time in Pittsburgh has likely run its course, as he no longer fits into the strategic or financial plan for the team. While that could change, it seems far more likely that Kaboly's opinion missed the mark on this one.
Steelers' Investment In Trubisky Isn't The Plus Kaboly Thinks It Is
Kaboly put forth that a positive selling point for having Trubisky on Pittsburgh's 2024 roster is his low cost to the team. Now, if Trubisky was in the realistic mix to be the starting quarterback in 2024, then yes, his salary would be quite reasonable, but that isn't the case.
Trubisky will cost the Steelers over $7.5 million in 2024 and then approximately $8.3 million in 2025, neither of which is a small number for a projected backup quarterback. It would be one thing if Trubisky had shown anything beyond faint glimmers of whatever Chicago saw in him, but that hasn't been the case. The monumental difference in the team during Week 13 through Week 15 and then when Rudolph took over from Week 16 through Week 18 is all the proof you need to see where the value lies in Pittsburgh's quarterback room.
Not only is Trubisky a financial burden for the Steelers, he is one of the highest-paid backup quarterbacks in the entire league. Kaboly may not see his bloated cap hit as a huge overpayment to an underachieving player, but that is the reality of the matter. Only Zach Wilson ($9.59 million), Jacoby Brissett ($8.5 million), and Tyrod Taylor ($6.9 million) cost their respective teams more for backup services, with Trubisky's $6.01 million coming in fourth (it's worth noting players like Russell Wilson and Jimmy Garoppolo are not included in this list).
To make matters worse, Trubisky isn't even waiting in the wings for the Steelers, ending up as the third-string quarterback by the end of the 2023 season. The prospect of dropping $7.5 million on a third-string passer can't make any franchise feel good.
Steelers fans should hope that Kaboly got this one really wrong because it would be a huge step in the wrong direction for Pittsburgh to continue throwing money at a busted investment.
Who should the quarterbacks be for the Steelers in 2024?
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