For the first time Tuesday, Mitch Trubisky took to the Steelers practice field and ran the offense.
His goal, now, is to not relinquish that grip he currently holds. But there’s going to be plenty of pressure.
“I feel very comfortable,” Trubisky said Tuesday following the first organized team activity (OTA) at the Steelers’ South Side practice facility. “The staff and the guys around have done a great job of just being in the books, studying and picking it up quickly.
“We’ve installed through everything, then we’ll go through and find out what fits us as an offense, me specifically, and then us as a quarterback room.”
It’s a quarterback room that’s a little crowded.
Trubisky was asked about, but did not confirm, the order the quarterbacks were used. But video of the practice shows how the Steelers split up he, Mason Rudolph, Kenny Pickett and Chris Oladokun.
“I’m just out there, and I go where they tell me,” Trubisky said. “We’re just competing. So whoever rolls out there first, I’ll take my reps. We’re here to build and get better everyday. We’re going to get reps with everybody at some point, so it’s about doing your best work when you’re on the field and competing.”
When Trubisky was signed, the initial thought was that he and Rudolph would battle for the top quarterback spot. But when Pickett was drafted, the two-man battle suddenly turned into three.
“I really wasn’t surprised,” Trubisky said of the move to draft the former Pitt quarterback, adding that the organization did not tell him that they were planning on taking a quarterback when he signed. “We needed to add to the quarterback room, and that’s what we did. We’re happy to have him and I’m looking forward to working with him.
"I knew coming into the situation... wherever I was going to go, I was going to have to come in and compete, earn the trust of my teammates and get back onto the field with hard work and my talent."
So far, all of the quarterbacks have said the right things when it comes to the competition.
“It’s good,” Trubisky added. “We have two young guys and two vets. There’s a lot of ongoing conversations. We’re all learning the offense for the first time together. We’re just pushing each other and competing.”
Trubisky, last week, was able to have an extended conversation with another recent Steelers quarterback, as Ben Roethlisberger had the 27-year-old and his family — including his newborn son — over for dinner.
“Ben and his whole family were awesome,” Trubisky said. “They reached out to us and welcomed me and my wife to the city. We’re just excited to be here. It was so nice of him to open his house and have dinner with him and have those conversations, and get to know him.”
Now he’ll try to fill the shoes of the man who fed him just days ago. But Trubisky is pumping the brakes on any lofty expectations, for now.
“One, you’re not going to replace a Half of Famer,” he said. “You’ve got to come in, be yourself and take it one day at a time. I’m just trying to be me. But you also have that huge respect for the people that came before you. I have the ultimate respect for Ben and what he’s done here.”
Trubisky appears to have the early upper hand in the battle. And he also has, he feels, an added dimension to his game after playing behind All-Pro quarterback Josh Allen in Buffalo last season.
“I saw what it was like when everybody just lets the quarterback play his game and lets him go out there and play free,” he said. “Being around him, I got back to more of who I was, how I want to play football.”
He also feels that, now in Pittsburgh, Matt Canada’s offense will allow him to experience those same freedoms that he saw Allen have in Brian Daboll’s scheme in Buffalo.
“We have a lot of good stuff going on right now,” Trubisky said. “We’re going to play to our strengths. Once we get to know each other, we find out what those strengths are, that’s where this offense will go.”