It’s fair to say that all 3 Steelers quarterbacks looked good vs. the Seahawks

The Steelers 2022 preseason kicked off with a 32-25 victory over the Seahawks at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night.

How did all three quarterbacks—well, all three besides non-participant Chris Oladokun—look?

Pretty good.

That’s really the only way you can spin it when discussing this three-horse race to be Ben Roethlisberger’s successor as the Steelers’ next full-time starting quarterback.

And is it really even a race? It doesn’t appear to be—as of this writing, anyway.

Mitch Trubisky started the game, played two series and completed four of seven passes for 63 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown pass to receiver Gunner Olszewski on the opening drive. During his short time in the game, Trubisky looked calm, poised, accurate and as mobile as advertised when he scrambled to his left before hitting Olszewski for the score.

Trubisky also looked like the guy who, judging by the short amount of time he played, is absolutely going to start against the Bengals in Week 1.

Mason Rudolph entered the game to more than just a smattering of boos before quickly being stripped of the football on his first play after left tackle Dan Moore was badly beaten by the Seahawks’ defender he was trying to block. Fortunately, Rudolph recovered the football and quickly regained his poise—although, he didn’t appear to ever lose it—and hit rookie receiver George Pickens for a 26-yard touchdown in the back right corner of the end zone just two plays later. Rudolph orchestrated three drives in the first half and completed nine of 15 passes for 93 yards and the aforementioned score. Rudolph looked confident, accurate and even decisive with many of his throws, hitting several receivers with what can only be described as bullets (in football speak).

Rudolph also looked like the guy who, based on playing just one series longer than Trubisky, will enter the season as the backup.

Kenny Pickett, the pride of Pittsburgh via New Jersey, made his professional debut at the start of the third quarter and played the entire second half. Pickett completed 13 of 15 passes for 95 yards and two touchdowns. Pickett looked athletic, mobile, poised and confident. He was also pleasantly accurate, as he connected on his first 11 passes. One of those first 11 completions was a three-yard strike to Jaylen Warren, a rookie running back who has been turning some heads so far at training camp. Warren also turned and twisted his body just the right way so as to sneak the football over the goal line to secure Pickett’s first touchdown pass as a professional. Pickett’s second touchdown pass as a professional occurred much later and proved to be the game-winner when he hit Tyler Vaughns on a short pass near the sideline and the young receiver did the rest of the heavy lifting for a 24-yard touchdown with just three seconds remaining.

Pickett also looked like a rookie who, judging by the amount of playing time he received, is slated to be the third-string quarterback in 2022.

If you want to get more nuanced about the play of the three quarterbacks on Saturday, you certainly can.

For example, who knows how Trubisky’s night may have gone if he had to attempt another 20 passes? What if he got to play with his full complement of skill-position players?

As for Rudolph, yes, he threw a couple of questionable passes that should have been intercepted. But one of those aforementioned accurate bullets would have resulted in his second touchdown, had receiver Miles Boykin, who was being "covered" exceptionally well by a Seattle defensive back, been able to secure the catch in the end zone.

Pickett, who was sacked twice on the night, seemed to hold onto the football a little too long on more than a few occasions. And his yards per attempt—6.3—wasn’t all that impressive. But Pickett is a rookie quarterback who, despite playing in his first NFL game, also appeared to be comfortable enough reading through his limited progressions. One final thing: Not only was Pickett playing without his full arsenal of skill-position players—all of the first-string guys had the night off besides Pickens—he was playing with guys who may not be playing anywhere in September.

The preseason sample size—almost always quite small and with weird ingredients peppered in—is the bane of the existence of the aspiring starting quarterback. If he has admirers, they will take the sample and savor it. If he has detractors, they will take the sample and flush it down the drain—unless it serves their agenda, of course.

But for three quarterbacks to post a passer rating of over 100—126.8 (Trubisky); 100.1 (Rudolph); and 132.6 (Pickett)—in the very first preseason game following Roethlisberger’s retirement is pretty encouraging.

You can try to spin things. You can try to serve an agenda or bias.

But the bottom line remains the same: All three Steelers quarterbacks who appeared in Saturday’s preseason opener looked good.

That’s the only fair thing to say.