PITTSBURGH — If your fear is that Mitchell Trubisky won't be able to fill Ben Roethlisberger's cleats, well, he wouldn't be the first.
Do you know who already failed to live up to Big Ben's lofty standards?
Big Ben. That's who.
The quarterback we watched for the past season-and-a-half barely resembled his vintage self. He sparked no fear in defensive coordinators. He was a mannequin in the backfield, unable to avoid the rush. Any miscue up front (and there were many) had a good chance to become a sack. Once a mistake eraser, Roethlisberger was now a mistake enhancer.
The best thing he did last season was make clutch throws, but they didn't add up to much.
Roethlisberger's final decade, though spiced with big numbers and spectacular regular season performances, didn't add up to much, either. He won three playoff games over his final decade as Steelers quarterback. He went 3-7. His last great playoff performance occurred, what, 13 years ago? So it's not like Trubisky has a recent postseason legacy to live up to.
I'll bet he can fail to win playoff games, too.
Seriously. What's the worst that can happen here? A few 9-8 seasons with no playoff wins? A 5-12 season that nets the Steelers a high draft pick, like the ones they parlayed into Roethlisberger and Terry Bradshaw?
The Steelers haven't won a playoff game since 2016. They have won three such games in 11 years. One against A.J. McCarron. One against Matt Moore. One against Alex Smith (on a day they did not score a touchdown).
It's true, they didn't have a "succession plan" at quarterback. Nobody has a succession plan to replace a franchise quarterback, unless you believe the Colts' plan was to have Peyton Manning sustain a neck injury and then draft Andrew Luck.
Or maybe you believe the Packers planned for Aaron Rodgers to plummet all the way to 24th in the 2005 draft to replace Brett Favre.
Got any other good succession-plan stories, where a team went directly from one franchise quarterback to another based on a detailed, advanced strategy?
How is the New Orleans post-Drew Brees plan going?
I'm not sure what people expected this offseason. Russell Wilson made it clear he wasn't coming east. Rodgers put on a pretty good show but obviously wasn't leaving Green Bay. Jimmy Garoppolo stinks (and he's injured). Derek Carr apparently is not available.
So the Steelers took a reasonable chance on a quarterback who still might have major untapped potential, and they got him for a Steven Nelson cap hit.
I'm with ex-Steeler-turned-ESPN-analyst Ryan Clark on this one. He did not paint Trubisky as any kind of savior but called it a "great decision" to sign him.
"The skill level is there," Clark said. "I do think he's an upgrade on not only Mason Rudolph, but on Ben Roethlisberger at the point when he retired."
Before incentives, Trubisky will make $7.1 million in his two seasons. His signing clearly did not preclude addressing the offensive line, as some feared it would. The Steelers have pledged $70 million toward linemen in the past few days.
If you're a "they might as well have gone with Mason" person, well, Rudolph's still here in case Trubisky fails.
If you're a "they gotta draft a quarterback" type, this signing hardly prohibits that idea.
I find it telling that Brian Daboll, the Giants' new coach, wanted Trubisky, whom he coached for a year in Buffalo. Daboll developed Josh Allen. He also was Alabama's offensive coordinator when Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa flourished there. He must see something in Trubisky, but he had to settle for Tyrod Taylor (at a higher base salary) to compete with Daniel Jones after Trubisky took the Steelers' modest offer.
Trubisky went 29-21 in Chicago, despite having a coach (Matt Nagy) who turned on him. In 2018, against the eventual Super Bowl-champion Eagles, he led the Bears on a late drive that should have resulted in their first playoff win in a decade, but then Cody Parkey happened. Trubisky played through a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder in 2019 — it would require surgery — and an injured throwing shoulder in 2020.
A piece from The Athletic details the disastrous relationship with Nagy, who reportedly berated Trubisky in front of the team and refused to meet with him after the 2019 season.
Dysfunctional would appear to be too light a word to describe Nagy's regime.
"(Trubisky would) be in the middle of camp and be like, 'Guys, none of this stuff is working,' or he'd be pointing out the problems with the offense, and he'd be getting this, 'Oh, no, man. Don't worry at all. It'll all come together,'" a source told The Athletic. "And then it gets to the season and we have all those problems happen."
This could turn out poorly, too. Who knows if Matt Canada is the right man to bring out Trubisky's talents? Who knows if anyone could?
If the experiment fails, the Steelers can pursue a quarterback again next year, or the year after.
What's a few more years without a playoff win?
