Steelers 2-a-days: Mitch Trubisky enters camp as QB1, Donovan Stiner an option at safety

Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent College, the Trib will be running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, assessing each player’s outlook for the 2022 season. The breakdown will go through the roster in mostly-alphabetical order, two per day, between June 11 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.

S DONOVAN STINER

Experience: Spent last season as a rookie on Steelers’ practice squad

Contract status: $705,000 cap hit if he makes the active roster in 2022

2022 outlook: Stiner is the only member of the Steelers’ 2021 class of undrafted free agents who is still with the team. He was the only one to even so much as remain on the practice squad all last season. But he did not make it onto the active roster or into a regular-season game.

At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Stiner is tied for the tallest and second-heaviest of the seven safeties on the camp roster. A three-year starter in college at Florida, Stiner was asked to cover slot wide receivers and showed he was a willing tackler when “in the box.”

At safety, the Steelers have a star in Minkah Fitzpatrick and two veterans as their Nos. 2-3 at the position in Terrell Edmunds and Damontae Kazee. Tre Norwood showed promise as a versatile rookie last season, and Miles Killebrew is a special-teams standout. Stiner, therefore, has a difficult path to a roster spot. But with a good camp, he’s a shoo-in for the practice squad — and if an injury pops up, it’s possible he could be promoted to the active roster, especially because Stiner excelled at special teams in college.

Mitch Trubisky saying all the right things about the Steelers drafting a QB after they signed him pic.twitter.com/IxusOwfVTS

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) May 24, 2022

QB MITCH TRUBISKY

Experience: 6^th season

Contract status: $3.66 million cap hit in 2022, signed through 2023

2022 outlook: The Steelers had options in their plans to replace retired franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. They could have handed the gig to incumbent backup Mason Rudolph, they could have submitted a bounty of assets to acquire a star such as Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson, they could have relied completely on the draft. And if they elected the free-agent route, they could have went a different direction (Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota signed deals to be starters).

The Steelers, though, chose Trubisky. Even if Rudolph remains on the roster and (six weeks after signing Trubisky) they did add a quarterback in the first round of the draft, Trubisky was targeted very early in the free-agent period. A former No. 2 overall pick who is still just 27 and has twice led a team to the playoffs and once been named to the Pro Bowl, Trubisky has a profile that suggests he could still be a better-than-average NFL starter.

The deeper analytics, though, imply Trubisky is no better than a low-end starter. The eye test, generally, has, too. But if things go as planned, Trubisky won’t have to start for the Steelers for too long, anyway — they didn’t take former Pitt star Kenny Pickett with the 20^th overall pick to sit and watch.

Organized team activities and minicamp made it clear, however, Trubisky is QB1 with a bullet as training camp begins. Despite claims from coach Mike Tomlin that it would be an open competition, what took place over the summer was nothing of the such in regards to reps: Trubisky was entrenched as the first-team QB.

Can that change during training camp? Not only had Pickett better impress, Trubisky also probably has to falter. And the reviews from the summer were seemingly all positive from coaches and teammates. Barring injury, it would be a shock if Trubisky isn’t starting when the regular season opens Sept. 11.

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