CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- After not naming a starting quarterback at the conclusion of Friday's practice, the Steelers "landed the plane" Saturday afternoon by naming Mitch Trubisky as Sunday's starter at Carolina.
Kenny Pickett has been in the concussion protocol since leaving last week's game against the Ravens, and Mike Tomlin prepared to play without him by having Trubisky split first-team reps with Mason Rudolph while Pickett was limited in practice throughout the week.
Though Trubisky has been the more obvious choice to start based on all of the evidence throughout the week, Tomlin never made it plain and clear who might get the start. Though Trubisky is listed ahead of Rudolph on the most recent depth chart, Tomlin went as far as to say they're "2 and 2A."
Based on his limited participation in practice throughout the week, Tomlin initially listed Pickett as doubtful for Sunday's game. However, Tomlin clearly had no intention of naming a starter until Pickett was officially ruled out after going through more testing on Saturday.
"We’ve got some clarity about where we're going. There’s just no need to land the plane until it's required to land the plane," Tomlin explained Friday. "I like the work that we've gotten from Mitch and Mason this week. Both guys have split reps and seen enough situations and not only what they've done this week, but the totality of what they've done makes us extremely comfortable in terms of considering both guys. So, we're comfortable."
Trubisky completed 22 of 30 passes for 276 yards and a touchdown in relief of Pickett last week. He averaged a season-high 9.2 yards per attempt and helped the offense move the ball at a season-high 6.2 yards per play. But, he also threw three interceptions -- all inside the Baltimore 20-yard line.
For Rudolph, Sunday will mark the first time he's been active all season. The reason for Rudolph earning some first-team reps this week was ultimately to prepare him in case Trubisky were to go down with an injury in the middle of the game.
"Part of that is we're making sure we're in a situation where everybody's ready to play," Matt Canada said Thursday. "We've had two quarterbacks playing all year and Mason has been a third and hasn't had a lot of reps at all. You want to prepare your football team to get ready to play. I don't think it's that abnormal to get them both ready, give them reps."
Pickett was initially listed as doubtful after Friday's injury report, but was officially downgraded to out Saturday afternoon.
In other injury news, LB Myles Jack (groin) was also initially listed as doubtful, but was upgraded to questionable.
