Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said at his Tuesday press conference that Kenny Pickett will start at quarterback this week if he is cleared from the concussion protocol and he also answered a question about what went on in the locker room before Pickett made his first appearance of the season.
Pickett took over the offense to start the second half of the Week Four game against the Jets and Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the move came after a locker room incident involving original starter Mitch Trubisky. Per the report, wide receiver Diontae Johnson yelled at Trubisky to thow the ball to him more often and Trubisky returned fire in what’s described as a “heated exchange.”
Pickett was reportedly told he was taking over after that exchange and Tomlin was asked to confirm the veracity of the report.
“If it were, do you think that I would share it with you in this environment? Probably not,” Tomlin said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. “Our business is our business. . . . Everyone wants to win. If it transpired, it’s good. It probably means there’s a couple guys that wanted to win. If it didn’t transpire, it probably means that it should have because we are aggressively pursuing victory. Sometimes that’s emotional.”
Trubisky was 9-of-12 for 144 yards and a touchdown after Pickett was injured in last Sunday’s 20-18 win over the Buccaneers. Only one of those passes went Johnson’s way, which was likely not the volume Johnson was looking for but the overall result was a lot better for the Steelers.
Mike Tomlin on reported Mitch Trubisky/Diontae Johnson verbal altercation: Our business is our business originally appeared on Pro Football Talk