Mitch Trubisky had perhaps his best day of training camp Thursday, the Steelers' final official practice at Saint Vincent College.
But it was something Trubisky said hours before the conclusion of his first camp with Pittsburgh that raised a few eyebrows, even just faintly.
Trubisky was asked about how he approaches practices during the quarterback battle, and if he eases off playing overly aggressive to avoid mistakes.
"I think in practice I try to be more aggressive, just because that's the time where you're able to test throws," Trubisky said. "Sometimes you can check it down and find completions all day, but you're not going to know what you're capable of or what the receivers are capable of unless you're testing some throws in practice.
"Yeah you might miss sometimes, or throw a pick here and there in practice, but that's what it's for. You've got to see what you're capable of and what the offensive guys around you are capable of."
Trubisky is right, of course. With his status as the team's presumptive starting quarterback, his margin for error is larger than others, even if he is somewhat of a reclamation project by NFL standards. But the timing seems, well, interesting.
A day earlier, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin talked about rookie Kenny Pickett getting more "varsity reps" this week, and during Pittsburgh's second preseason game this Saturday night in Jacksonville.
Pickett ran with the second team in practice all week, and performed admirably, while appearing to surpass fifth-year quarterback Mason Rudolph on the depth chart as the team's primary backup.
A knock against Pickett, to this point, and against Rudolph throughout his career, is that they have failed to consistently stretch the field, and often rely on check downs and dump-off passes during practices and games as pressure in the pocket overwhelms them. In other words, their shared weakness is what Trubisky highlighted as something he wants to avoid.
"It's important to take those chances, but I think you also take into consideration that you're in a competition," Trubisky added. "You want it to look clean and good out there. It's nice to find completions and move the offense forward. But I think you have to toe the line of when to be aggressive and when to take care of the football."
Trubisky was, however, also highly complimentary of Pickett's development.
"You come in as a young guy, it's hard to lead guys older than you," Trubisky explained. "But I think he's done a great job of that. Whatever group he's in, he's definitely led them. He's made a tremendous jump."
Whether Trubisky's comments were an intended slight against Pickett and/or Rudolph will never be know, obviously. But they did seem to at least be a case of him detailing his strengths, which is fair.
The Steelers' quarterback situation isn't completely cleared up just yet. Plenty could happen over the final two preseason games and the three weeks before the regular season opener in Cincinnati.
But Trubisky was excellent on Thursday, connecting on a pair of deep shots on consecutive 11-on-11 plays, including a 30-yard fade to Chase Claypool and a 90-yard bomb to Diontae Johnson.
"I just want to show this team that I can be a leader and can lead this team to victory," he said. "So, any time you step on a field, that's game tape. You're trying to put your best work on film all the time. That's what I'm trying to do."
At the moment, Trubisky seems to be playing his best football since joining the Steelers this offseason. He's gotten some of his offensive weapons back from injury, and that has opened up the playbook and his playmaking abilities throughout the last few days.
All of it is trending in a positive direction heading into the team's first road game with him as their starter.
"We've got to come prepared," said Trubisky — who guessed that he might play between one and two quarters Saturday. "(It's) game two, so we'd like to see it be even better on the execution front, and just go out, play hard, and whenever they take us out, continue to support our teammates.
"But I think we made progress last week to this week, had a good week of practice. We just have to finish strong and put some good stuff on film."
