It’s going to happen sooner or later. Why not sooner?
Seriously, give me a good reason why Kenny Pickett shouldn’t start Thursday night in Cleveland.
Short week?
Backup quarterbacks are paid to be ready on short notice. Like, the next play. And the Steelers aren’t exactly facing the ’85 Bears. The Cleveland Browns just made Joe Flacco (307 yards, four touchdowns) look like prime Joe Namath. If you can prepare to be the backup, you can prepare to be the starter.
Pickett’s not ready yet?
Well, there’s only one way to find out. One of the attractions of drafting Pickett allegedly was him being a veteran college quarterback who could step in quicker than most. Maybe he could add some anticipatory throws, some daring downfield shots and some game-changing scrambles to this puny little pee-wee offense, which embarrassed itself for the second straight week in a 17-14 loss to the New England Patriots.
Mitch Trubisky hasn’t been horrible?
That’s true. But he hasn’t been good, either. He attempted 33 passes Sunday and passed for 168 yards. In two games, that’s now 71 attempts and 364 yards. Inchworms accumulate air miles faster.
Some will label the call for Pickett ridiculous, but you know what's truly ridiculous? This passing game. Are we ever going to see a Steelers receiver catch a ball in stride and run with it?
Change happens fast in the NFL. A move here would be reminiscent of the Steelers’ quarterback shuffle back in 2002, when Tommy Maddox replaced Kordell Stewart — an MVP candidate the previous season — in Game 3 and never relinquished the job. Stewart wasn’t off to a terrible start, just a mediocre one. Maddox energized the offense and saved the season.
It’s not just Trubisky’s arm that's going to waste. He’s not using his legs, either. There are no designed runs, and he isn’t taking off on his own. His one scramble Sunday ended short of a first down because he slid rather than go for the sticks. There’s just no spark.
The Steelers’ obvious and unintentionally ironic plan is to have their quarterback and his offense play ultraconservatively so as to protect the defense.
The irony: It’s actually harming the defense, forcing it to stay on the field longer and have to win games outright. What a shame it would be to squander a potentially prolific defense in what might be a mediocre division.
The state of the division, by the way, could lend itself to a young quarterback’s acclimation. It doesn’t look like anybody’s going to fall way behind here.
CBS analyst Charles Davis had this to say about the Trubisky-Pickett situation late in the fourth quarter, as the Patriots were pounding the ball and killing clock the way the Steelers used to, once upon a time:
“I don’t expect a quarterback change on a quick turnaround, but the discussion will start in Pittsburgh. Because they have such a good defense, they’re gonna ask themselves, ‘Will the youngster give us a better opportunity to not waste this defense?’ ”
Davis had the perfect description for what we witnessed Sunday. He labeled the Steelers offense “small ball.” It’s filled with no-risk throws to the sidelines and endless check-downs and three-yards-and-a-pile-of-Acrisure running plays and, of course, a pass 2 yards behind the line on 3rd-and-8.
The longest completion was 23 yards — and that was to George Pickens (yes, he still exists!) on a soft-coverage play with time running low in the first half. Some deeper completions might spring a still-stagnant running game.
On one of the rare occasions Trubisky took a real shot, he failed to look off a defender and got picked off. Maybe the Steelers have good reason to keep the handcuffs on. It’s just that I thought they signed Trubisky to see if they could extract the talent that made him the second-overall pick. That’s why some of us jumped on the Trubisky Train.
I didn’t know it was going to be the Glacier Express.
If the Steelers merely wanted a caretaker, they should have invited Ben Roethlisberger back. Last-year Ben probably wins this game late. This-season Mitch throws a 2-yard pass on 3rd-and-8 to kill one fourth-quarter drive and underthrows Najee Harris to kill another.
The Steelers’ first drive of the game ended on an inaccurate throw. Another ended on an interception, another on a sack and six more on kicks.
KDKA analyst Chris Hoke, speaking postgame, wasn’t so high on the idea of going to Pickett on Thursday.
“I think it’s absolutely out of the question,” Hoke said. “Four days to get ready? If the offense stumbles some more, then it’s almost like a bye week (before the next game, against the great Joe Flacco).”
If things were to fall apart for Trubisky in Cleveland, Hoke believes Mike Tomlin could go to Mason Rudolph, who might be more liable to take advantage of those single-high-safety looks.
My brain cannot even begin to process a Rudolph-Flacco matchup. We just watched Trubisky-Mac Jones. Haven’t we suffered enough?
If the idea was to make Trubisky the early sacrificial lamb behind a horrendous line, well, that storyline has changed. The line hasn’t protected that poorly. Pickett would have a chance to make plays.
Tomlin obviously drafted Pickett — staked his future success on him — because he loves everything about the kid. Just last week, on the Steelers pregame show, he spoke of how Pickett is an “in-stadium” kind of performer, meaning he raises his game when the lights go on.
Last I checked, the lights will be on in Cleveland.
