The Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback room has been crowded once again this season.
They entered the year with Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph, who had all previously started for the franchise, on the roster.
However, an injury to Kenny Pickett at the beginning of December creaty a temporary need for some more depth at the position.
That led to the Steelers adding Trace McSorley to the practice squad last month.
Unfortunately, his time with the Steelers has now come to an end.
The Steelers announced today that they had released McSorley from the practice squad.
A Tough 2023 for McSorley
Despite not being drafted until the sixth round in 2019, McSorley had managed to keep himself consistently on NFL rosters for the first four seasons of his career.
Despite only ever attempting 10 passes for them, McSorley was able to carve out a role with the Ravens for two and a half years as their third-string QB.
After falling to their practice squad, he was picked up by the Cardinals to finish out the 2021 season.
Last season, he actually had the only start of his NFL career.
after Kyler Murray was injured, McSorley got a chance to start for the Cardinals against the Buccaneers.
He was almost able to pick up a win against Tom Brady, but the Cardinals ended up losing in overtime.
This year, he has had a much tougher time staying on a roster.
He spent the offseason in New England after signing a one-year deal with the Patriots.
He didn’t end up making it to the start of the regular season with the Pats as they released him at the end of August.
His next stop was in Chicago, with the Bears adding him to their practice squad in October. They released him at the end of November.
Now McSorley once again finds himself looking for a team and he could have to wait a little while as teams prepare to reshape their rosters in the offseason.
The Steelers QB Who Could Join McSorley Next
With Pickett fully recovered from his ankle injury, the Steelers’ QB room is very crowded again.
In fact, it has become so crowded that the team ended up listing Trubisky as inactive for the Week 18 game against the Ravens and only made him available as their emergency quarterback for the game.
The move seems to make it more likely that the team will let him go after the season is over, which is something that has been speculated about recently.
Letting go of Trubisky after this season would save the Steelers just under $3 million in cap space. That could become very important now that he is no longer the team’s backup QB and they’ll need to re-sign Rudolph.
Trubisky’s play has been disappointing in the two seasons since the Steelers signed him to compete for their starting job, making it very difficult to justify his continued presence on the roster beyond this season.
If he is released, maybe it will open the door for McSorley to come back to Pittsburgh as the team’s emergency QB for 2024.
