What is all the fuss here? I honestly don't get it.
Is there even a story?
Is there more to it I'm missing?
I don't think so. Seems pretty surface level and easy for me. I don't know why everyone can't look at things so straightforwardly.
The city — and more to the point Steelers Nation -- is involved in contorting itself all kinds of ways in an attempt to come up with the best possible remedy for the malady that just might be quarterback Kenny Pickett's absence in the upcoming Carolina game.
You see, Kenny got bonked on the head and his availability is in question.
This is where everything should become oh-so simple. But this is where too many have made it oh-so hard.
A raging debate is now engulfing and consuming everyone with even a tepid interest in the Steelers and it goes like this: If Pickett can't play, should the Steelers turn to Mitch Trubisky or the seemingly-forgotten-about Mason Rudolph to take the snaps on Sunday?
This is just me talking here: It is pretty close to a tie.
Probably. Even as Rudolph hasn't take a snap since he backed up Mark Malone, I think.
And it is just me talking here again: You know one way I break ties? The guy who just threw three interceptions and could only muster 14 points the week before doesn't get to start. That is how this should all play out.
All season, Rudolph has been mired and stuck behind two guys the Steelers have deemed better than him.
Is that the case? Are they really better than him? It probably is at least half-true, with Pickett almost-certainly better than Rudolph and Trubisky at best a toss up.
But now the Steelers are out of it. Done. Kaput.
There isn't a shot in heck this team is making the playoffs, even if they mathematically have yet to be eliminated.
All that said, everyone and anyone can have some big, long, nuanced conversation and natter about how Mike Tomlin should arrive at the starter this week if Pickett can't go.
Knock yourselves out. Chatter away. Debate until you can't debate no more.
For me, Tomlin is charged with just one duty and that's to put his football team in the best possible scenario to win. I normally don't speak in absolutes but absolutely nothing else matters.
I don't think Mason Rudolph is that great of a quarterback.
I just don't.
But we aren't measuring Rudolph against the other 31 men slated to take snaps this week in the NFL.
All Rudolph needs to be is better than Mitch Trubisky. He doesn't need to be better than anyone else on this planet.
I don't know how, if Pickett can't play, the choice is anything other than Rudolph. When you are on unsteady footing to begin with, your team is going nowhere and you throw it to the other team three times, you should lose your job. It is OK to tell Mitch to sit down.
Someone tell Mike Tomlin this isn't that hard.
