After a long seven-month wait the NFL season is finally making its return. The Pittsburgh Steelers will begin their 2022 season on Sunday the 11th in Cincinnati.

Pittsburgh made a lot of notable changes in the offseason, including a big change on the offensive side of the ball. After a long-storied career in the Steel City, Ben Roethlisberger played his last game as a Steeler in the loss to the Chiefs in the Wild Card round of last year’s playoffs.

Big Ben’s retirement meant the Steelers’ front office had to make some big decisions in the offseason. The first move they made was to sign free agent quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. Trubisky began his career in Chicago after being selected second overall by the Bears in 2017. Many believe Trubisky was overrated and his struggles in Chicago supported these thoughts.

Though after Trubisky left Chicago for Buffalo, things became a little more complicated. It became very clear that Trubisky wasn’t the issue, or at least not the biggest one. Bears head coach Matt Nagy showed that he had no idea how to run an offense. 

With this in mind, the Steelers’ move for Trubisky seems like the perfect low-risk high-reward situation. The former second overall pick wasn’t taken that high in the draft for no reason. Throughout preseason Trubisky showed signs of what he was capable of. There’s no doubt that Trubisky has the opportunity to reach his full potential in Pittsburgh. 

The other move the Steelers made to improve the quarterback room was to draft former Pitt QB Kenny Pickett in the first round. Pickett put up amazing numbers for Pitt last season as he lead them to an ACC title and a trip to the Peach Bowl. 

Pickett spent most of his career at Pitt as no more than a decent college quarterback. Before his senior season people weren’t giving Pickett much thought and it seemed very unlikely that he’d even be drafted let alone a first round pick. But Kenny proved everyone wrong and had one of the best individual seasons in Pitt history, breaking the Pitt all-time passing record and finishing third in the Heisman trophy voting. 

After his phenomenal senior year, there was plenty of speculation that he’d stay in Pittsburgh as it wasn’t a secret that the Steelers needed a quarterback. The Steelers followed this speculation as they drafted Pickett 20th overall. 

Throughout preseason Pickett played well and rarely made mistakes. Pittsburgh drafted Pickett knowing he was the most NFL-ready quarterback in the draft. It’ll be interesting to see how ike Tomlin and the Steelers handle the quarterback situation throughout the season. As of the time of writing this article, Tomlin hasn’t yet named who the starting QB will be week one, though if I had to guess, I’d lean towards Mitch Trubisky. Neither quarterback outperformed the other in preseason and Trubisky has the advantage of previous experience.