PITTSBURGH -- Just after 1 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon, Mitch Trubisky will take the field at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium for the coin toss, and soon after, he’ll line up as the Pittsburgh Steelers' starting quarterback.
It will be his first start since Week 17 of the 2020 season -- a formal announcement finally made by Mike Tomlin earlier this week, 177 days after Trubisky signed a two-year, $14.2 million free agency deal with the Steelers.
That was the easy part. Now comes the hard stuff.
Trubisky, the Chicago Bears' former No. 2 overall pick, was always the favorite to earn the Week 1 starting job. That was the plan when he signed in March, and it was the plan when the Steelers drafted Kenny Pickett with the No. 20 overall pick a month later. During training camp, the coaching staff even told the team Trubisky would be starting, wide receiver Diontae Johnson said.
But now the Steelers must manage their present while the future waits in the wings and the fans at Acrisure Stadium chant his name. And Trubisky must find a way to play through the pressure to position himself for his future, a third act and a true second chance to be a franchise quarterback. Such is life as a caretaker quarterback.
“I don't know about rebirth, but it's definitely, it's the next opportunity for me,” said Trubisky, who was also named one of five Steelers' team captains. “And I'm always looking ahead to see what I can continue to get better at.
“Right now this is the next opportunity, and I'm just grateful to be in this position with this team, and trying to take full advantage of it.”
The noise around when Pickett could take over -- as deafening as it is -- is easy enough to shut out, Trubisky said.
“[I’m] not worried about that,” Trubisky said. “Just go about my business on a day-to-day basis and take care of what I can control.”
It’s a balancing act Hall of Famer Kurt Warner knows all too well. He turned a nine-game stretch as the New York Giants’ starter into a career-affirming second act in Arizona, while the young rookie who replaced him turned into a franchise anchor. It’s the kind of best-case scenario the Steelers could hope to emulate with Trubisky and Pickett.
Two days after being released by the St. Louis Rams in June 2004, Warner signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the New York Giants. Rookie Eli Manning, the first overall pick, was already on the roster.
“When I went into that year, it was trying to parlay whatever I can into another opportunity to start to show people that I can play at this level,” Warner said. “And along the way, whatever I can do for Eli and this team, I will do that. That was my goal and that was my mindset because I knew I wasn't there long-term.”
Like the Giants’ acquisition of Warner, the Steelers’ addition of Trubisky also wasn’t meant to be a permanent fix. The two-year, team-friendly deal carries a $3.6 million cap hit in 2022, but that number jumps to a minimum of $10.6 million in 2023. Moving on from Trubisky after this season would only come with $2.6 million in dead cap.
In 2004, Warner had the starting job out of camp, but after back-to-back losses in Weeks 9 and 10, he was pulled in favor of Manning. It didn’t matter that a Warner-led offense helped the Giants to a four-game win streak early that season and a 5-4 record, coach Tom Coughlin was ready for the future -- even if the future was a short-term downgrade from the present.
Manning went 1-7 as a starter and threw six touchdowns to nine interceptions for a 55.4 rating. But after his rocky start, Manning went on to win two Super Bowls for the Giants, while Warner made a third Super Bowl appearance in a resurrected career in the desert.
“The hardest part of the whole thing is in this business, when a team drafts a guy, oftentimes it becomes not so much, when does the young guy become better or when is he a better option for our team,” said Warner, who’s now an analyst at NFL Network. “It really becomes when do we get the excuse to play the young guy? When does something happen where it seems like the right time to transition to our young guy?
“...You're just trying to hold on as long as you can without looking over your shoulder. The biggest balance is, how do I go out and throw caution to the wind and be the best version of myself while considering that any mistake or any loss by the team could mean my time with the franchise is done and they’re moving to the young guy.”
The dynamic of a bridge quarterback isn’t unique, but it’s an unfamiliar spot for Trubisky, who has twice been the newcomer looking to unseat a veteran. As a redshirt freshman at North Carolina, Trubisky pushed incumbent Marquise Williams for two seasons before he finally took over. And in Chicago, he went up against Mike Glennon for the starting job. Glennon, who signed a three-year deal with $18.5 million guaranteed in March 2017, eventually lost the job to the Bears’ No. 2 overall pick after four games and a 1-4 start.
Trubisky led the Bears to two playoff berths and he made a Pro Bowl appearance. But after the Bears traded for Nick Foles and declined Trubisky’s fifth-year option, the quarterback signed with the Buffalo Bills to back up Josh Allen for the 2021 season.
“He's been through a lot at such a young point in his career,” said Troy Aikman, ESPN NFL analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback. “He’s now in the position that others were in when he got drafted by Chicago. ... You're just kind of keeping the seat warm and you hope you play good enough while you're out there in order to give yourself an opportunity in the future somewhere else. There's a lot of pressure from the standpoint that when you struggle -- if you're going to struggle -- you just hope it's not to the extent that it means that you're losing your job, but that's kind of the nature of it.”
But those who know Trubisky best believe his demeanor and experience make him capable of navigating the potentially awkward dynamic of helping a rookie while also protecting his job.
“He spent basically two years behind Marquise, and I think he did a really good job when he took over, of understanding how [the backups] felt and always made them feel included in what we were doing,” former UNC coach Larry Fedora said. “He gave them a lot of wisdom on what they needed to do to get to where he was.”
Still, Trubisky is in a tricky spot. He needs to rejuvenate his career and prepare for his own future, but any misstep will undoubtedly be met with external calls and chants for Pickett.
Despite the chatter, though, Trubisky says he’s ready to be the Pittsburgh Steelers' starting quarterback -- for however long it lasts.
“Just play well, be consistent, worry about what I can control,” Trubisky said, explaining how he plans to maintain the starting job. “It’s just worrying about what's best for the Pittsburgh Steelers and winning football games.”