Mueller: Pickett’s quick return will put Steelers under a microscope

A Steelers season that looked completely dead in the water has some life after all, and when the team attempts to further extricate themselves from the 1-4 hole they dug by beating the Dolphins in Miami on Sunday night, they’ll have Kenny Pickett at their disposal, just a week removed from a concussion that knocked him out of the Buccaneers game.

I’m surprised, to say the least. Given the way that concussions – particularly ones suffered by quarterbacks – are being scrutinized these days, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Mitch Trubisky would start, and see if he could catch lightning in a bottle for four quarters instead of one-and-a-half.

There have been 39 diagnosed concussions in the NFL this season, per Dr. David Chao, formerly the San Diego Chargers’ team doctor for 17 seasons. Pickett is the first player to return to full practice three days after suffering his injury. Only six players all season have returned to play in a game a week after their concussion. It is not a stretch to say that Pickett’s recovery timetable has been unique.

That makes me uneasy. Not because I don’t believe in the quality of his care; quite the opposite, in fact. Pickett is probably in the best city in the United States, if not the world, for concussion research and treatment. He also plays for Mike Tomlin, who famously refused to let Ryan Clark risk playing against the Broncos because of potential dangers and complications related to his sickle cell trait and the thin air in Denver.

No, the unease stems from the fact that the Steelers are putting themselves in the line of fire from a public-relations standpoint with this decision. Pickett went through the protocol and was cleared, and there are certain physiological parts of that process that cannot be faked. All evidence points to things being handled by the book. Still, if something happens to him tonight, there will be plenty of attention on the team’s decision to play him, even though any injury could and very possibly would be unrelated to his previous injury.

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Miami being the opponent will also have the effect of putting Pickett’s recovery under the microscope. The Dolphins have lost three straight games, the last two without Tua Tagovailoa, whose concussion got the sport’s attention and sparked swift changes to the concussion protocol. Tagovailoa was cleared to play last week, but Miami held him out of the game out of perhaps an abundance of caution, but more likely for optics reasons, since their handling of his initial injury against the Bills was so haphazard.

Pickett’s play didn’t look nearly as bad, but his head still hit the turf like Tagovailoa’s did against Buffalo, and the severity of a hit – or lack thereof – does not have any correlation to the severity – or lack thereof – of the concussion it causes. That Pickett won’t miss a game and didn’t even have his normal practice schedule disrupted also makes me wonder about things from an “asset management” perspective, particularly because we know Pickett’s style is that of an old-school, tough-guy gunslinger, willing to put his body on the line in the name of making a play.

“Asset management” is a cold-sounding term, I understand, but first-round picks usually get handled differently, especially if they’re quarterbacks. Is it worth the risk of another dangerous hit so soon after the first one to maintain stability at the position, something Tomlin alluded to earlier this week when he said Pickett would start if cleared? For this team, I’m not so sure, even though they’re somehow just a game out of first place.

I’d rather err on the side of caution. An extra week to get rest might not be medically necessary, but it certainly can’t hurt. And it’s hard to fathom this team going anywhere this season even if they win this game. It would still be a significant uphill climb.

What’s more, Trubisky was so sharp in the second half against Tampa Bay that Tomlin could easily anoint him the starter for this week, chalk it up to wanting to be cautious with Pickett’s long-term health, and then turn the reins back over to Pickett against Philadelphia, win or lose this week. I would have no issue with such a plan.

The Steelers have made it clear that they aren’t going that route, that they aren’t worried about what the rest of the NFL is doing, and that they trust their medical experts. Those are all defensible, viable positions. But this isn’t a normal time in the NFL; the league and those who watch it are on heightened alert for head injuries, and no game will be more heavily scrutinized from that perspective than this one.

You’ll forgive me if I can’t shake the uneasy feeling from the back of my mind.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Mueller: Pickett’s quick return will put Steelers under a microscope