With Kenny Pickett still out for the foreseeable future, there’s an unquestioned man in charge of the quarterback position in his absence.

Unquestioned in the eyes of the coaching staff, at least.

In his weekly press conference, which was a day earlier than usual due to the Steelers playing on Saturday this week, head coach Mike Tomlin downplayed even the idea of putting third string quarterback Mason Rudolph on the field.

Instead, he remained fully committed to backup QB Mitch Trubisky, who started on Thursday night against the New England Patriots.

That game, in which the 2-win Patriots toppled Trubisky and the Steelers, was the latest in poor showings by Trubisky for the Steelers this year.

He has previously come in relief for an injured Kenny Pickett three times before, but has yielded similar poor results in games, all of which the Steelers ended up losing.

Thursday night was his first time this season as the starting quarterback for Pittsburgh, and it was a doozy for sure.

Trubisky went 22/35 for 190 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

He was routinely booed by an angry home crowd as the Steelers offense began the game in miserable fashion, and Trubisky was picked off on the first play of the second quarter.

That interception, which was returned 32 yards by New England’s Jabrill Peppers, helped set up a touchdown to make it a 14-3 ballgame for the Patriots.

The tape did not get much better for Trubisky; even though he did get the Steelers into the endzone with a pass to Diontae Johnson, his two pass attempts with the game on the line both fell incomplete, sealing a Steelers loss.

The numbers back up the eye test on this one: Trubisky’s Pro Football Focus rating was a dead last 39.7 amongst 34 qualifying quarterbacks. He was dinged for two turnover worthy plays by PFF (his actual interception, and the one Myles Bryant should have caught).

Despite that, Tomlin said he would not even have a competition this week to see who should start on Saturday.

In perhaps the most critical game of the season for the Steelers, in Indianapolis against the 7-seed Colts, Pittsburgh has stupidly decided to make up their mind way too early about who should be taking snaps for the team.

Mason Rudolph, who heard his name chanted at Acrisure Stadium Thursday night as fans were fed up with Trubisky, will not even be allowed an opportunity to compete for a chance to start.

“He just hadn’t had a lot of exposure in terms of in helmet prep,” Tomlin said in his press conference. “I don’t know that we’re evaluating practice performance in that way this time of year.”

Tomlin would go on to outright say the Steelers were not “opening up competition” between the two to evaluate for Saturday.

But what’s the harm in at least opening the door for Rudolph?

Since 2019, Rudolph actually has the most touchdown passes for any Steelers quarterback not named Ben Roethlisberger.

Rudolph’s 16 touchdowns (17 total games) is higher than both Pickett’s 13 touchdowns (in 25 games) and Trubisky’s 10 touchdowns (11 games).

It certainly can’t get much, if any worse.

Trubisky was bad on Thursday. You’d be hard pressed to find a time where the home team was booed as heavily as they were in that game, with Mitch at the helm.

And yet, the Steelers will continue to do everything in their power to keep him from seeing the field.

That’s despite Trubisky’s continued throwing into double and even triple coverage getting him in trouble again. That’s despite him being outplayed by 33 other quarterbacks in the NFL last week. That’s despite Rudolph having legitimate NFL experience and waiting in the wings for a shot.

People who are in the anti-Rudolph camp often conflate wanting to give Rudolph a shot with claiming he’s a great quarterback.

They are not one in the same.

Rudolph was not great when he took over for an injured Ben in 2019, but he showed instances of being a game manager for the Steelers. Heck, he had a 5-3 record with the team that year.

Being a game manager is essentially what they have asked Kenny Pickett to do all year. Whether that is because that’s all he can do or because that’s all the coaching staff allows him to do is still being argued, but it’s what has been asked of Pickett to date.

The same was asked of Mitch Trubisky when he stepped in, but his much more aggressive play style combined with poor field vision makes being a game manager nearly impossible for him; he will either win you or lose you the game.

In the long term future, the Steelers need someone who is far, far better than a game manager, but if that’s what the Steelers need right now, why not let Rudolph try that out?

He can execute that game plan better than Trubisky can, and that’s what the Steelers need right now as they try and limp, and I mean limp, their way into the postseason.

But yet, all of this is moot.

Mike Tomlin has made up his mind about the quarterback. Mitch Trubisky is here for a long time, not a good time.

(Featured photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)