That must be tough for Mitchell Trubisky.

The hope for quarterback Mitchell Trubisky when he inked a two-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022 was that he would be able to rebuild his career as a starter. It did not turn out that way for Trubisky. His fate on the team had been written on the wall the moment Pittsburgh selected Kenny Pickett in the first round of that same year’s NFL Draft.

It even got to a point where the Steelers instructed Trubisky to send a congratulatory message to Pickett, who eventually got the team’s QB1 role, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show t (h/t Steelers Nation).

“The other part of that message that was probably more surprising to me was the mere fact that we’re talking one month after they jumped into free agency and signed him immediately to be that quarterback that when they draft Kenny, he receives a message from somebody who would matter to say, ‘Now we have Kenny Pickett, could you text him and congratulate him.’ No wonder Mitch Trubisky spent the next four or five months looking over his shoulder as to when all that was going to come down. To me, to do that, that was not just tone deaf, and believe me, that did happen.”

Nevertheless, that drama in Pittsburgh is now in the rearview mirror of Trubisky, who was released by the Steelers this February. Back in Pittsburgh, there is also no assurance that Pickett is viewed as a long-term answer under center for the team, especially with the 2024 NFL Draft coming up.

In 12 games, including seven starts, with the Steelers, Trubisky racked up 1,884 passing yards and eight touchdowns against 10 interceptions on 64.1 pass completion percentage.