Amidst all the ugliness of Pittsburgh’s 24-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, quarterback Kenny Pickett left the game late in the second quarter and did not return.

The injury forced veteran backup Mitch Trubisky to finish the game, which went from bad to worse. Early in the third quarter, Trubisky fumbled off a bad snap from center Mason Cole, and the Cardinals capitalized and recovered the ball, later scoring a touchdown off of it.

Trubisky finished the day 11/17 for 117 yards and a touchdown, but that TD came after the Steelers were down 21 points.

Pickett, meanwhile, watched the second half from the bench, sporting a boot on his lower leg. It was the fifth time in 25 games that Pickett left the game with an injury and was not able to return.

For those curious, these are the first four:

• Week 6, 2022 vs Tampa Bay – left with concussion in third quarter
• Week 14, 2022 vs Baltimore – left with concussion in first quarter
• Week 4, 2023 @ Houston – left with knee injury in fourth quarter
• Week 8, 2023 vs Jacksonville – left with shoulder injury in second quarter

And so, when it happens as often as it has for Kenny Pickett, naturally a conversation arises about his ability to stay healthy.

In fairness to Pickett, most of the injuries are not his fault. Concussions are always a tricky thing, and that Jacksonville game he was driven into the ground right on his shoulder.

Nevertheless, it has been a problem in Pickett’s young career. In 20% of Pickett’s games, the former first round pick from 2022 has left the game prematurely. In his place, backup Mitch Trubisky did a good job filling in last season.

In that Tampa Bay game, Trubisky played arguably his best effort as a Steeler, leading the Steelers to a 20-18 win and putting together an incredible final drive to run out the clock.

Then, in Baltimore, Trubisky had the offense moving up and down the field with a kind of speed that they had not seen all year. Unfortunately for Mitch, his drives often ended in interceptions in this game; Trubisky was picked three times in the 16-14 loss. It’s so hard to look past the picks, but he did do a good job of getting the offense moving.

This season, however, things have not gone nearly as well. In Houston, Trubisky didn’t have a lot of time to do much, but he had just 18 yards. Against Jacksonville, Trubisky led an uninspiring second half, where much of his stats came at garbage time in the loss. Most recently against Arizona, the story was much the same.

The performance of the quarterback behind him has nothing to do with Pickett, but Trubisky’s amount of snaps does. Pickett leaving games early as often as he has is putting the Steelers in a hard scenario. They are often playing shorthanded.

Whether you like it or not, Pickett is their guy still, and he likely will be next year as well. We’ve all been having the argument all season about whether or not the Steelers should keep him around, but it’s incredibly likely that he is here for at least next year, to give him a complete season without fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

However, for as long as Pickett is your guy, you need to have a competent backup behind him. Trubisky did that last year, but this year, it’s a different story.

Aside from the game results, Trubisky is not putting up the same level of personal performance this season. The stat sheets might look about the same, but in both the Jaguars and Cardinals games, a decent chunk of those yards came after the game was well out of reach.

Beyond that, watching Trubisky this season just feels different. Last season, after he was benched, when he was called upon Trubisky played a much more confident style. He was slinging the ball all across the field, no matter how good of a decision it was. To him, it didn’t matter; he was already demoted, so might as well try to make some nice plays.

It was a wonderful change from what we saw from Trubisky when he was the starter last year. We all said that Trubisky played scared and timid, afraid to make a mistake and afraid to lose his job. This season, even without the fear of Pickett waiting to be handed the keys, Trubisky looks like his shy self from last year.

Meanwhile, third string quarterback Mason Rudolph has been banished to the shadow realm. Despite the fact that he is virtually the same player (maybe even a little better), Rudolph seems destined to never start another game for the Steelers.

We can argue whether either player, Trubisky or Rudolph, got a fair chance in Pittsburgh. The former was saddled with Matt Canada and was benched after 3.5 games, and the latter had a winning record when thrown into the job in 2019 and was never handed the job back.

Nevertheless, the Steelers seem to have finished their evaluations on both. Trubisky is their backup, and Rudolph is their third stringer.

This current room is not getting the job done. The Steelers need someone new in there.

Rather than bring in someone who we already know, the Steelers need somebody entirely new. They need to draft somebody.

Regardless of how low fan support is for Pickett at the moment, the Steelers won’t draft somebody high up in the draft who could immediately replace him. Whether that’s the right call or not from an organizational standpoint is a different conversation, but that doesn’t change the fact that they will stick with him for next year.

While they won’t pick someone high up, why couldn’t they take someone in a later round? In an ideal scenario, the Steelers take a flyer on a mid/late round guy and bring him into the fold.

It’s a better option that signing someone to be the backup.

Signing someone to be the backup is how we got to where we are. If the Steelers move on from Trubisky and replace him with a player just like him, that fixes nothing.

They need somebody entirely new, and taking a flyer on a guy in the draft does just that.

In addition, it adds some competition for Pickett. The Steelers have made things quite clear that Trubisky is the backup quarterback. He will not be surpassing that role as long as he is in Pittsburgh. However, if you draft somebody, there’s no limit to what he could be.

The draft pick would be the backup or below at first, yes, but that title would not permanently be on him. In simpler terms: Pickett knows for a fact that the guys behind him are no threat, but he won’t have that same level of comfort if someone new shows up via the draft.

Ideally, this would motivate Pickett to further step up his game, now that there’s a new kid in town who could take over the QB job if everything goes right for him.

The Steelers would be wise to do their homework on the quarterback class of 2024. Examine who will still be there in say, the third or fourth round, and if you really like somebody, commit to taking him if you can.

And after they draft him, they need to stick with him. This cannot be a Chris Oladokun situation (if you don’t know who that is, that’s the point), they need to give him time to actually develop.

Maybe one day that QB develops and overtakes Pickett. Or maybe he doesn’t.

But the way the QB room is constructed right now is stale, and it needs a change.

(Featured photo of Mitch Trubisky by Philip G. Pavely/USA Today Sports)