Jun 10, 2022 5 min read

There is a competition to see who will replace Ben Roethlisberger as the Steelers’ starting quarterback and it will heat up when the team opens training camp July 26. But there’s also a very defined pecking order of how things have been run to this point.

Mitch Trubisky is No. 1. Mason Rudolph is No. 2. And rookie Kenny Pickett is No. 3.

It could be a glimpse into how things will be once the regular season begins.

“(Mike Tomlin) has been very clear that Mitch is 1 and he’s been working with the 1s and doing a real good job of that,” Matt Canada said this week. “Mason is at 2 and Kenny is 3. We’re doing it that way based on experience, based on resumes. Coach made that decision. You can read whatever you want into it.

“Coach has been very clear. We also were very clear this is a real laid-out plan of how we’re going to evolve and find who our quarterback is going to be for the 2022 season.”

That is how those three have worked to this point and how things will continue to progress in the immediate future.

How the team handles things once players report to Latrobe might be different. But there seems to be – at least a perception inside the UPMC-Rooney Sports Complex, where it matters most – that Trubisky is the starter and Rudolph and Pickett will need to do a lot to unseat him. The real battle is more likely to see who is No. 2.

The Steelers signed Trubisky in free agency to a two-year, $14.25-million contract. The six-year veteran has 50 career NFL starts, compared to 10 for Rudolph and none for Pickett, the Steelers’ first-round draft pick.

And that experience could be the deciding factor when it comes to determining who will be the starter.

“You want to find the guy. Certainly, it’s the best one,” Canada said. “But what makes him the best? Is it taking care of the ball? Is it the red zone? Is it leading the team? All those things. That’s a Coach Tomlin decision we’re all going through. The plan is so clear. We’re putting in our offense. We’re going to try to find who does this well? Who does this? Who has these intangible things?

“We’ll find the guys who are the best for each spot, and quarterback obviously is a big part of that.”

With a young offense – fourth-year wide receiver Diontae Johnson and right tackle Chuks Okorafor are the senior members – there is a lot of newness.

One thing Trubisky has impressed the coaching staff with is his ability off play-action, something that was largely non-existent with Roethlisberger.

Roethlisberger had a 78.0 passer rating on play-action passes last season and was 77.3 in his career. Trubisky, in his career, has a 97.0 rating on play-action passes.

Canada wants to use quarterback movement and play-action as part of his offense. And Trubisky, apparently, is very good at it because of his above-average athleticism and feel for that particular part of the game.

“He really has a great feel. He does an excellent job, particularly at the top of his drop,” quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan said of Trubisky’s play-action talents. “It’s really a valuable tool, honestly, to be able to show the other guys. Not to embarrass Mitch or put him on the spot, but it’s a good picture to show the other guys. The timing is so critical. The ball has got to come out.”

That was something that was attractive about Trubisky. And it could be something that allows him to not only have the No. 1 spot atop the depth chart at the end of training camp.

n The Steelers will not finish 29th in the league in rushing in 2022.

They will be better at run blocking than they were last season because of the additions of James Daniels and Mason Cole on the interior line. They should average more than the 3.9 yards per carry they did last season.

Improvements from Najee Harris will help, too.

But the biggest addition to their running game will come from the quarterbacks.

Last season, the Steelers got 58 rushing yards on 25 attempts from their quarterbacks. Roethlisberger had 5 rushing yards on 20 attempts.

There were bridges in Pittsburgh more mobile than Roethlisberger.

Trubisky and Pickett are both athletic enough to hurt opponents by running. Heck, for that matter, so is Rudolph. He had 53 rushing yards on five attempts last season.

If the rest of the team produces the 1,525 rushing yards – taking the quarterbacks out of the equation – it did last season, and the Steelers get league-average rushing production out of their quarterbacks, things will look much different.

Last season, teams averaged around 200 rushing yards from the quarterback position. Obviously, there are outliers to that, but the Steelers also were well below that number.

And Trubisky has rushed for as many as 421 yards in a season.

That will make a big difference.

BC-GLF-Saudi League Deshaun Watson is up to 24 civil lawsuits for sexual harassment.

There is not going to be a happy ending in Cleveland with that situation.

The growing sense in league circles is that Watson could wind up suspended for all of 2022 and perhaps even beyond.