Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett left his team’s loss to the Houston Texans in the third quarter on Sunday afternoon after suffering a knee injury. Could that make them look to make a trade for a quarterback? Perhaps they could look into Detroit Lions’ veteran Teddy Bridgewater.
The good news is that initial testing revealed that Pickett did not sustain any damage to his ACL, and Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reported that Pickett’s absence is expected to be “brief.”
However, Pickett will still likely miss some time, meaning that the Steelers are going to have to find answers under center. Mitchell Trubisky relieved Pickett on Sunday, but whether or not Pittsburgh actually views him as a solution is a debatable.
So, what will the Steelers do at signal-caller while Pickett recovers?
Christopher Kline of FanSided suggests that the club pursues Lions backup Teddy Bridgewater.
Bridgewater has plenty of experience as a starter, as he has started 65 games between the Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and Miami Dolphins throughout his well-traveled nine-year NFL career.
While Bridgewater is not someone you necessarily want starting for a full 17-game campaign, he is a terrific backup and is more than capable of winning a couple of games in a pinch.
You have to imagine that the Lions, who are currently 3-1, would move Bridgewater for the right return, especially considering that they have rookie quarterback Hendon Hooker on the roster in case Jared Goff goes down.
Bridgewater is a quintessential game manager and has gone 33-32 over the course of his career as a starter. His best season came in 2021, when he made 14 starts for the Broncos and threw for 3,052 yards, 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 66.9 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 94.9. Denver went 7-7 in his starts.
The Steelers fell to 2-2 with their loss to the Texans and will host the Baltimore Ravens in a pivotal NFC North showdown next weekend.
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