Kenny Pickett

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett is expected to start Sunday's contest against the Miami Dolphins after clearing concussion protocol from an injury he suffered in the team's last game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, per ESPN's Brooke Pryor.

Cornerback Levi Wallace and tight end Pat Freiermuth also cleared concussion protocol and will likely take the field against Tampa Bay.

Pickett took first-team reps during practice on Wednesday and Thursday, and his return shifts Mitch Trubisky back to the second-stringer role.

Trubisky entered the Week 6 win over Tampa Bay after Pickett suffered the concussion and played well on his way to 9-of-12 passing for 144 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions.

His touchdown pass to Chase Claypool in the fourth quarter helped open up an eight-point lead, and Pittsburgh's defense stopped Tampa Bay's two-point conversion after its late touchdown to preserve the 20-18 win.

Trubisky started the first four games of the season but gave way to Pickett during the Week 4 loss to the New York Jets.

The rookie then started against the Buffalo Bills and Buccaneers and will presumably be the starter this season as long as he is healthy. He has completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 514 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions, although he scored twice on the ground against the Jets.

Pittsburgh is just 2-4 on the season and could have an eye on the future after selecting Pickett with the No. 20 overall pick of the 2022 NFL draft.

More experience this year will presumably help his preparation for future seasons when the Steelers may be in a better position to compete, although they are only one game behind the 3-3 Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North.

If the rookie can demonstrate a bit more consistency as a thrower while garnering that additional experience this season, the Steelers could make a playoff run despite a lackluster start to the campaign.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson discussed the reported heated exchange with quarterback Mitchell Trubisky in Week 4:

"There's no bad blood between us at all," Johnson said. "It's just us being football players at times and we're not gonna let that stop us from achieving the goal that everybody is trying to achieve around here."

This seemingly confirms reports of a locker room confrontation between the two at halftime during the Oct. 2 loss to the New York Jets, per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Trubisky was benched for the second half in favor of rookie Kenny Pickett.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin refused to answer questions about the reported dispute Tuesday.

"Our business is our business and I understand in today's climate, oftentimes there's leaks, our business getting the street," Tomlin said. "But I'm not gonna acknowledge it or confirm it or deny it in these settings."

Pickett made the team's next two starts before suffering a head injury Sunday, allowing Trubisky to return and lead the Steelers to a 20-18 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tomlin said Pickett will start if healthy and the quarterback is currently "on track" to play, according to Mark Kaboly of The Athletic.

Johnson did see a season-high 13 targets in Pickett's lone full game this year, although the wideout still only finished with five catches for 60 yards in a 38-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills. It's been a disappointing year for the Pro Bowler, who has yet to score a touchdown and has just 33 catches for 295 yards.

After averaging 72.6 receiving yards per game in 2021, Johnson is only averaging 49.2 yards per game this year.

The 26-year-old will hope to get on the same page with whoever lines up under center in Week 7 against the Miami Dolphins.

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had no interest in confirming or denying whether there was an altercation between quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and wide receiver Diontae Johnson during halftime of the team's Week 4 game against the New York Jets.

Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that confrontation led to Trubisky's benching and rookie Kenny Pickett making his first appearance, and ESPN's Brooke Pryor asked a non-committal Tomlin about it:

"If it were, do you think that I would share it with you in this environment? Probably not. Our business is our business and I understand it today's climate, oftentimes there's leaks, our business getting the street. But I'm not gonna acknowledge it or confirm it or deny it in these settings. I'm just not, I ain't got enough hours of my day for it.

"The things that happen among competitors from time to time is normal business. Everyone wants to win. If it transpired, it's good. It probably means there's a couple guys that wanted to win. If it didn't transpire, it probably means that it should have because we are aggressively pursuing victory. Sometimes that's emotional."

According to Dulac, Johnson yelled at Trubisky during halftime of that game to throw to him more often. The quarterback reportedly responded by engaging in a "heated exchange," which was when Pickett was informed he would be under center for the second half.

While the Steelers lost that game 24-20, it seemed like the move to the rookie was solidified when he scored two touchdowns on the ground and started the next two contests.

Yet Pickett suffered a concussion during the Week 6 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Trubisky came in and excelled while going 9-of-12 for 144 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions.

His touchdown pass to Chase Claypool in the fourth quarter pushed the lead to eight, and Pittsburgh's defense stood strong on the two-point conversion after Tampa Bay scored a touchdown in the final five minutes.

That was just enough to escape with a 20-18 victory.

Perhaps Trubisky will remain under center for the upcoming game against the Miami Dolphins with Pickett's status still up in the air, and he played like someone who could be deserving of a second shot in the win over Tampa Bay.

But don't expect Tomlin to reveal what goes on in the locker room regardless of who is under center.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett was ruled out for the remainder of Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a concussion after exiting in the third quarter.

He went back to the locker room and was subsequently replaced by Mitchell Trubisky.

The 24-year-old was the first QB selected in the 2022 NFL draft, coming off the board with the No. 20 pick. It was the latest the first signal-caller was taken in a draft since 1997.

Pickett began the year as the backup to Trubisky but showed enough to take over the starting job as the season progressed. He entered Sunday's game with 447 passing yards, zero touchdown throws and four interceptions.

The Steelers made a dream come true when they chose Pickett. The New Jersey native spent five years playing for the Pittsburgh Panthers, emerging as the team's full-time starter at the beginning of his sophomore season.

Pickett took full advantage of his extra year of eligibility in 2021 and established himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. He threw for 4,319 yards, 42 touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 67.2 percent of his passes. He led Pitt to an 11-2 record and its first ACC Championship in program history. It was the Panthers' best record since 1976.

The Steelers signed Trubisky this offseason, which gave them the option of taking a slow approach with Pickett's development. However, Trubisky's lackluster play opened the door for Pickett to see the field. While the rookie is sidelined, Pittsburgh will be hopeful Trubisky can lead its offense better this time around.

In his first five NFL seasons, the 28-year-old had 10,652 career passing yards, 64 touchdowns and 38 interceptions. The former first-round pick by the Chicago Bears spent the 2021 season with the Buffalo Bills as backup to Josh Allen.

The Steelers also have Mason Rudolph as their third-string quarterback. He'll back up Trubisky while Pickett is out.

The Kenny Pickett era has officially begun in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers will start the 24-year-old at quarterback for Week 5 against the Buffalo Bills, with Pickett passing Mitch Trubisky on the team's official depth chart.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport first reported the change on Monday.

The news comes as no surprise after Pickett replaced Trubisky at halftime in the Week 4 loss to the New York Jets. The former Chicago Bears QB had completed just seven of 13 passes for 84 yards and one interception before being replaced.

Pickett completed 10 of his 13 passes for 120 yards and three interceptions, one of which came on a Hail Mary in the final seconds of the game. He also rushed for 15 yards and two scores in relief of Trubisky.

When the Steelers replaced the 28-year-old, they were down 10-6. But Pickett rejuvenated the team, which went on to score 14 unanswered points to take a 20-10 lead before the Jets scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Trubisky has been largely ineffective this season. Entering Week 4, the first-year Steeler had completed 60.2 percent of his passes for 569 yards and two touchdowns against one interception. The free-agent signing was also averaging just 5.5 yards per attempt.

That said, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had frequently called for patience with Trubisky. He even reaffirmed his belief in the veteran signal-caller following a Week 3 loss to the Browns, saying he wasn't considering starting Pickett.

Obviously, Tomlin's feelings about Trubisky changed after another disappointing performance in Week 4, and it's hard to imagine he will get another chance to start this season.

The Steelers selected Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft to be Ben Roethlisberger's heir, and now it's his time to show the franchise what he can do as its leader.

It's wise not to overreact to small sample sizes in fantasy football.

That is certainly the case with Pittsburgh Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett, who entered Sunday's 24-20 loss to the New York Jets for Mitch Trubisky and made an immediate impression with two short touchdown runs.

And then things quickly went downhill.

Pickett finished 10-of-13 for 120 yards, zero touchdowns and three interceptions as a passer. The first pick was a deflected deep ball that could have been caught and the third was on a Hail Mary, but the second one was far more costly with the Steelers nursing a three-point lead in the fourth quarter.

New York scored the winning touchdown on the ensuing possession.

Fantasy players may want to stash Pickett on the bench in case he lives up to expectations now that he appears to be the quarterback for Pittsburgh, but he is not someone who should be starting even after his two touchdown runs.

It's not as if Pickett was a scrambler who was making defenders miss in the open field. The scores were short runs near the goal line and the type of flukey results that likely won't be replicated on a weekly basis.

As for Pittsburgh's top two playmakers in Najee Harris and Diontae Johnson?

The quarterback change is no reason to take them out.

Yes, Johnson's day of two catches for 11 yards was disappointing, but the track record is there with a combined 2,084 receiving yards and 15 touchdown catches the last two years. Pickett will surely look his way a number of times when he is more settled into the offense, and that makes him a fantasy starter even if Sunday didn't go well.

It is also natural to expect Pittsburgh to rely more on its rushing attack with a rookie under center. That means Harris, who ran for 74 yards on 18 carries against the Jets, will still be involved in a major way.

And he should still be in starting lineups for fantasy players.

By no means am I guaranteeing that Tua Tagovailoa and Daniel Jones will become successful long-term NFL starters at the quarterback position, but there's also no denying that many wrote both off before they even took the field in 2022.

Yet, through two weeks, the 24-year-old Tagovailoa and the 25-year-old Jones stand among the eight highest-rated passers in the league.

At the very least, there's hope—especially for Tagovailoa after the 2020 No. 5 overall pick lit up the Baltimore Ravens in an incredible Week 2 comeback victory. Entering Week 3, he led the NFL by a wide margin with 739 passing yards, while Jones—a sixth overall pick one year before Tua came into the league—has completed 70.9 percent of his passes for a New York Giants team that has a serious shot at achieving a 3-0 start Monday night against the limping Dallas Cowboys.

For now, both Jones' Giants and Tagovailoa's Miami Dolphins are undefeated.

At the very least, this should serve as a reminder that if teams are going to invest considerable draft capital in a quarterback, they need to be patient.

The problem is fanbases—and human beings in general—are less patient than ever. We've got countless other entertainment options on demand, and three seasons of Game of Thrones beats the hell out of three seasons of Daniel Jones growing pains.

Plus, fast starts from recent sensations like Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray and Justin Herbert have moved the goalposts for guys like Tagovailoa, Jones, and 2021 first-round signal-callers Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields and Mac Jones.

There was a time when the league waited longer for young quarterbacks. And you don't even have to go back to when Peyton Manning led the NFL with 28 interceptions as a rookie in 1998.

Aaron Rodgers famously started zero games in his first three professional seasons, albeit with Hall of Famer Brett Favre in the driver's seat. Four-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning was a complete mess in limited action as a rookie in 2004, though, and he didn't truly blossom until his fifth season. Philip Rivers didn't see the field much in his first two years and became an MVP candidate in Year 5. Reigning Super Bowl winner Matthew Stafford started just 13 games his first two pro campaigns, and Alex Smith had an impressive career despite struggling his first few years in San Francisco.

Now, there's a chance both Tagovailoa and Jones fade into oblivion. There's a chance both become stars. In all likelihood, based on the crapshoot nature of first-round selections at the sport's most critical position, one will pan out and the other will not.

But even if that middle-case scenario comes to fruition, it should serve as a lesson for the Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bears and New England Patriots. Executives, coaches and fans associated with those five teams are likely already starting to fidget over their sophomore first-round passer, especially the first four on the list. But Trevor Lawrence was thrown into a near-impossible situation with the train-wreck 2021 Jags, Zach Wilson didn't have a lot more support with the '21 Jets, the injured Trey Lance will have just four starts under his belt at the end of his second season, and judging Justin Fields this early is also quite unfair based on the quality of Chicago's roster the last two years.

What happens if Jimmy Garoppolo shines the rest of the season in Lance's stead? Does 49ers brass consider pulling the chute that quickly? You'd think not considering that Lance cost San Francisco three first-round picks as well as a third-rounder. So it's probably safe to say all four of those guys will at least get three years. You could argue they're each owed at least a fourth.

That might depend, to an extent, on what we see from Jones and Tua for the remainder of this season. And from there, the copycat dynamics will eventually trickle down to how the Pittsburgh Steelers handle rookie first-round pick Kenny Pickett, who has yet to take a regular-season snap but will certainly gain some reps unless interim starter Mitch Trubisky suddenly turns it around.

Regardless, while it's not on brand for 2022, my advice to NFL decision-makers is to chill out. Let's wait. Wait to see how this season plays out for up-in-the-air young signal-callers like Jones and Tagovailoa, and beyond that, how future seasons play out for the likes of Lawrence, Wilson, Lance, Fields and Pickett.

As the external pressure for the team to make a quarterback change increases, Pittsburgh Steelers signal-caller Mitch Trubisky expressed a sense of resignation over the situation.

"It is what it is," he told reporters following Sunday's 17-14 loss to the New England Patriots. "You just block it out and continue to play football."

Trubisky went 21-for-33 for 168 yards, one touchdown and an interception in the defeat. Midway through the game, the Acrisure Stadium crowd made their opinions known when they chanted Kenny Pickett's name.

Signing Trubisky as a one-year stopgap made sense.

The Steelers didn't have an internal solution to start at quarterback since Mason Rudolph wasn't the answer. In a weak NFL draft class at the position, it didn't make a lot of sense to throw a first-year QB straight into the starting job, either.

Trubisky would, in theory, be good enough to hold down the fort until Pickett was ready to take over.

Pickett's strong preseason, however, meant plenty of fans would want to see the rookie under center in Week 1. The Heisman Trophy finalist went 29-for-36 for 261 yards and three touchdowns.

Now, through two weeks, Trubisky is failing to hit what were already modest expectations. His 181.0 passing yards per game and 76.1 quarterback rating are below what he delivered in any of his four years with the Chicago Bears.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to argue the Steelers would be worse with Pickett. If the coaching staff believes that to be the case, then it presents far bigger problems for Pittsburgh.

The Steelers have a short week, with a matchup against the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night. Because of the quick turnaround, making a quarterback change would be tricky.

Should fans watch more of the same from Trubisky in Week 3, the calls for Pickett to take over will almost certainly hit fever pitch.