{"id":80727,"date":"2024-01-31T03:35:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T03:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nflklinh.playsetmusic.com\/?p=80727"},"modified":"2024-01-31T03:35:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T03:35:17","slug":"steelers-urged-to-target-former-first-round-qb-kieu-linh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/steelers-urged-to-target-former-first-round-qb-kieu-linh\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Urged to Target Former First-Round QB"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0have voiced a desire early this offseason to bring in quarterback competition for 2022 first-round pick\u00a0Kenny Pickett. Former Steelers linebacker Arthur Moats argued on his podcast that the team should considered Sam Darnold, a 2018 first-round pick, as that potential competition.<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw Sam Darnold come in and play well this year,\u201d\u00a0Moats said on The Arthur Moats Experience with Deke Podcast on January 25. \u201cWe know that he\u2019s a high pedigree guy who\u2019s been around and has starter experience. But more importantly, he\u2019s very talented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obviously, things haven\u2019t worked out Darnold and his talent in his NFL career. He hasn\u2019t started more than six games in a season since 2021.<\/p>\n

But Moats pointed to that talent as what the Steelers need to push Pickett.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] less about how productive he can be when you\u2019re just talking about talent in a practice setting,\u201d\u00a0Moats added. \u201cDo you know how hard it is to beat out a professional on that level? Every day in practice because of how talented he is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Could the Pittsburgh Steelers Pursue QB Sam Darnold?<\/h2>\n

Steelers President Art Rooney II said in his annual press briefing the team would prefer to re-sign quarterback\u00a0Mason Rudolph. That\u2019s in line with what head coach Mike Tomlin told the media in his post-season press conference on January 18.<\/p>\n

Moats wasn\u2019t against bringing back Rudolph. But in the event the veteran quarterback opts for a different opportunity, the former linebacker proposed Darnold as an alternative.<\/p>\n

From a practice perspective, Moats argued that in Darnold the Steelers would be getting what they have with\u00a0Mitch Trubisky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the thing with Mitch [Trubisky] when we said Mitch was the guy [to work with Pickett] early on,\u201d\u00a0Moats said. \u201cMitch knows how to practice, and Mitch is a professional, and Mitch is ultra-talented.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s a big reason why [to sign Darnold].<\/p>\n

Trubisky is under contract with the Steelers for 2024, but the expectation is the Steelers will cut him to save about $2.9 million against the salary cap.<\/p>\n

How Darnold Could Fit With the Steelers<\/h2>\n

Because of their belief in Pickett, the Steelers are in a delicate quarterback situation this offseason. Although they want to get better behind center, the Steelers can\u2019t add a signal caller that\u2019s significantly better than Pickett unless they want the 2022 first-rounder to sit on the bench.<\/p>\n

That makes Darnold an interesting option. While he\u2019s best suited as competition in practice and an insurance policy in case of injury, Darnold also has starter experience.<\/p>\n

For that reason, Moats argued he could be true competition for Pickett. And if Darnold earns the starting job, then it will truly be the end of the Pickett era in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll all agree that if [Pickett] can\u2019t beat Sam Darnold, then yeah, we need to go ahead and draft somebody the following year,\u201d\u00a0Moats said. \u201cBecause we don\u2019t deem Sam Darnold as our franchise guy. But is he good enough to start? Sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Kenny can\u2019t beat out Sam Darnold, we\u2019re in a bad situation anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darnold has posted\u00a0a 21-35 record in 56 NFL starts. Over his six-year NFL career, he\u2019s posted a 59.7% completion percentage and averaged 6.7 yards per pass with 63 touchdowns and 56 interceptions.<\/p>\n

He went 0-1 as a starter for the\u00a0San Francisco 49ers\u00a0this past season.\u00a0He appeared\u00a0in 10 games, completing 60.9% of his passes for an average of 6.5 yards per pass with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0have voiced a desire early this offseason to bring in quarterback competition for 2022 first-round pick\u00a0Kenny Pickett. Former Steelers linebacker Arthur Moats argued on his podcast… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}