The Pittsburgh Steelers are beginning to remake their quarterback room. The Steelers and Mitch Trubisky mutually agreed to part ways ahead of free agency, per NFL Media. The team announcing his release on Monday. Per multiple reports, the team elected to make the move now in order to give Trubisky an early start to free agency.
Trubisky spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons with Pittsburgh. He began the 2022 campaign as the starter ahead of Kenny Pickett before giving way to a then-rookie Pickett four games into the year. He then served as Pickett's backup for the next year-plus before taking over under center when Pickett got injured in 2023, but Trubisky was later benched in favor of Mason Rudolph.
The former No. 2 overall pick had two years left on his contract, with base salaries of $4.25 million and $5 million coming his way. He would have counted against the cap for $7.56 million in 2024. The Steelers will save around $2.94 million if they release him right away, and $5.25 million if they designate him as a post-June 1 cut.
Pittsburgh is expected to pursue a quarterback in either free agency or the draft this offseason, and it seems highly unlikely that Pickett will be the starter in the third year of his rookie contract.
In addition to Trubisky, the Steelers also announced that they released punter Pressley Harvin III and offensive lineman Chukwuma Okorafor, who started 55 games over the last four seasons.
