Dan Sanford

Sports Editor

das6267@psu.edu

It has been an eventful week for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns organizations. And both have picked up their new leaders to their offenses.

The Steelers signed Mitchell Trubisky, a former second-overall draft pick in 2017, to a two-year contract worth $14.25 million Thursday. Trubisky arrives in Pittsburgh after serving as the backup to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. He is best remembered for his tenure with the Chicago Bears, who drafted him and with whom he played for four seasons.

Although he scarcely saw game time with the Bills, completing six of only eight passing attempts all season, he joined the Bills to be Josh Allen’s back-up and learn under the same coaching staff that developed Allen into an MVP candidate. Unlike the previous offseason, Trubisky signed with the Steelers with hopes of beating out Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins for the starting job – something no team would offer Trubisky last season.

Despite holding the Bears franchise record for career passer rating (87.2) and career completion percentage (64 percent), Trubisky had grown a reputation for performing inconsistently on the field, and the Bears often were unable to provide him with sufficient offensive weapons or protect him with the offensive line to help remedy that. As a result, some began to go so far as to call him a draft bust because of the success of those drafted after him such as the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and one big name who showed up in Cleveland the day after Trubisky signed in Pittsburgh – Deshaun Watson.

Pittsburgh’s division rivals to the east made a big splash by landing the much-maligned Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans Friday. After initially seeking a trade from the Texans due to conflicts with management, Watson was embroiled in allegations of sexual harassment, among other off-the-field controversies. One week later, the Texans decided they had had enough and shipped him to Cleveland, who paid Houston a king’s ransom: all three of Cleveland’s 2022, 2023, and 2024 first-round draft picks now belong to Houston, along with third-round and fourth-round picks in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Watson is intended to replace the disgruntled Baker Mayfield, who requested a trade from the Browns after a catastrophic 2021 season plagued by injury. To ensure this, the Browns signed Watson to the richest contract in NFL history: a five-year, $230 million deal with the Browns, making it the largest contract and most guaranteed money in a contract in NFL history. Despite having not played in a year, there is reason for Browns fans to be optimistic – Watson managed to lead the league in passing yards while playing for a poor 4-12 Texans team.

Will either team be able to improve its offensive woes with these two after losing big names like Juju Smith-Schuster, James Washington, Jarvis Landry, O’Dell Backham Jr., or Rashard Higgins? These two will once again be put to the test on that question twice this season.