Steelers: 3 2022 free agency mistakes Pittsburgh regrets

Steelers 2022 free agency mistake No. 2: Signing Mitchell Trubisky

Frankly, the decision to sign Mitchell Trubisky is easy to disagree with given the benefit of hindsight. In the moment, the decision to sign Trubisky when the Steelers did — before the NFL Draft where they ultimately selected Kenny Pickett to be the quarterback of the future — was hard to argue. At that time, after Ben Roethlisberger retired, the quarterback room looked bleak.

However, in hindsight, signing Trubisky and giving him a rightful opportunity to start the season as the starting quarterback put the Steelers in a disadvantageous position toward the latter half of the season. Trubisky started the team’s first four games and the Steelers went 1-3 during that stretch. Trubisky’s play certainly didn’t help, as he recorded just above 163 passing yards per game over that span. When he was benched for Kenny Pickett, the team’s play improved considerably.

Besides the impact on the final season result for the Steelers last year, it’s also hard to imagine anything Steelers fans have seen from Trubisky inspires much confidence in the team’s outlook if Pickett were to suffer an injury this year. Despite that, Trubisky has the eighth-highest cap hit of any Steelers player for the 2023 season.

Multiple 2023 free-agent quarterbacks who signed with other teams for a backup role likely would be better options than Trubisky if called upon to start. If the Steelers hadn’t committed to Trubisky last offseason, they could have added a better second option.