The Pittsburgh offense isn’t producing enough points. But that isn’t enough to produce a quarterback change. Yet.
After Thursday night’s 29-17 loss to the Browns, coach Mike Tomlin was unequivocal in his ongoing support of current starter Mitch Trubisky. When asked about the possibility of shifting from Trubisky to rookie first-rounder Kenny Pickett, Tomlin said, “The answer to that question is definitively no.”
It’s the best chance to give Pickett extra time to prepare for the job until the full-blown Week Nine bye. By then, it may be too late. After the Week Four game at home against the Jets, the Steelers face a mini-murderer’s row of superior foes: at Bills, Bucs, at Dolphins, at Eagles.
The Steelers, currently 1-2, could end up being 2-6 through eight weeks. That could make it very difficult to win enough of the final nine games to capture the division or to slip into one of the three wild-card slots in the AFC.
It also would increase the pressure on Tomlin to avoid his first ever losing season. He’d need to go 7-2 down the stretch.
In the interim, he’ll have to manage internal and external pressure to play Trubisky. The fans want the Pitt product. In the building, Trubisky had been losing support even before the Week Three loss.
And while Trubisky did a better job of getting the ball down the field in the passing game, the results weren’t there. Trubisky completed 20 of 32 passes for 207 yards. Not bad, but not good enough to get the win.
Pickett is clearly the future. Many think the future is now. The man in charge of the team thinks otherwise, and that’s really all that matters.