JUSTIN FIELDS | PHOTO BY KARL ROSER/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

Thanks to Mike Tomlin’s stubborn pragmatism we still don’t know the identity of the Steelers’ answer to its long-term quarterback, but we know who it isn’t.

Kenny Pickett.

Pickett could have been doing what Justin Fields has been doing this season, filling in capably if unspectacularly for Russell Wilson, who so far has proven incapable of playing. Pickett could have been avoiding turnovers, playing it safe, occasionally making plays with his arm or his legs and in the process rewriting his sub-standard resume and repairing his damaged reputation by emerging as the quarterback of record in three successive victories.

Good work if you can get it.

Pickett could have had it, but he balked at being a backup to Mason Rudolph late last season and then quickly decided he’d rather not be with the Steelers any longer once they acquired Wilson last offseason.

The Steelers acquiesced and now Pickett’s in Philadelphia, where he hasn’t yet left the bench.

And Fields, as of Wednesday, was being prepared to start again this Sunday in Indianapolis.

Left offensive tackle Dan Moore Jr. was, too.

If there’s been anyone who’s had a right to pull a Pickett and pout in recent seasons it’s Moore, a former fourth-round pick who wound up starting 16 games as a rookie in 2021 and 17 more in 2022.

The Steelers’ response was to trade up to draft offensive tackle Broderick Jones 14th overall in 2023, but the only time Jones started in place of Moore was when Moore came up physically unavailable for an encounter with Baltimore last October, the only time in 17 assignments Moore didn’t start last season. Jones’ 11 subsequent starts, including the playoff loss at Buffalo, were made at right tackle.

The Steelers’ response was to draft offensive tackle Troy Fautanu 20th overall this year.

They did so with an eventual vision of playing Jones at left tackle and Fautanu on the right side.

But they haven’t gotten around to that just yet, and won’t any time soon.

One reason why is Fautanu has landed on the reserve/injured list after making his NFL debut at Denver in Week Two.

Another is that Moore has simply refused to be moved.

Rather than take it personally when players of a higher pedigree were acquired at the expense of precious draft capital at the position he plays, Moore kept his head down and kept working.

He controlled what he could control, which was the way he approached his job on a daily basis and the effort he invested in getting better.

He never bitched and he never blinked, at least not publicly.

How do you like me now?

Moore still might end up being the odd man out at offensive tackle eventually.

That plan to play Jones at left tackle and Fautanu at right someday remains in place.

The Steelers didn’t invest first-round picks in both of those players not to play them.

But if it inevitably works out that way at the conclusion of this season, Moore will hit unrestricted free agency as a four-year starter who is destined to get paid.

Not by the Steelers, but by someone, somewhere, given how starved NFL teams are for offensive linemen in general and left tackles in particular.

There’s a lesson in all of that, for those who are willing to learn.

Good things really do sometimes come to those who wait.

Perseverance has its privileges.

And sometimes, you get what you deserve.

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.