PITTSBURGH — Nobody is going to win or lose the quarterback competition in May.

“So, pardon me if I don’t give you what you’re looking for,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said to a question, in really his only public comments about the quarterback battle during the three weeks of on-field spring practices.

There was no declaration of who will start the season opener Sept. 11 in Cincinnati, and nobody figured that was going to happen. But there were clear winners and losers in the window of spring practices in what were nine sessions for the veterans, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph, and a few more for rookie draft picks Kenny Pickett and Chris Oladokun, who took part in rookie minicamp as well.

And maybe more important than whether Trubisky can roll to his left and throw — whether Rudolph can adapt to being a more mobile quarterback, or whether Pickett’s small hands are an issue — was the framework of Tomlin’s detailed plan for how to determine whom his starting quarterback will be to open the season.

“I think Coach has been very clear that Mitch is No. 1, working with the ones and doing a really good job with that. Mason is No. 2, and Kenny is No. 3 and we are working that way based on experience, based on résumé,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada said. “We have been clear that this has been a laid-out plan of how we are going to evolve and who our quarterback is going to be for the 2022 season.

“The plan is so clear that right now, we are just getting better and putting in our offense and putting in a lot of parts of our offense, and we are going to try to evolve and find who does this well, who does that well, who has this intangible thing, who has this tangible thing.”

This so-called plan of navigating through three potential starting quarterbacks over a month of training camp and three preseason games might be detailed and specific, but if it is, they haven’t told any of the participants involved what this checklist might entail.

“I know nothing about that process of what they are looking for as much as you,” Rudolph said.

In part, it’s going to be mostly on-field production with surely more than a little leeway toward the free-agent veteran Trubisky and the first-round quarterback Pickett. Rudolph has been told he’s in the mix to win the job as much as the other two, but a lot of things would have to go right for him and wrong for the other two in a short span for that to happen.

“You have to find a way to get to who your starting quarterback is going to be, and we are being very fair in giving everybody an opportunity,” Canada said. “Fair is not always equal, and we understand that. We want to find the guy, and for us, it is going to be the best guy. But what makes him the best? Taking care of the ball? Making plays in the red zone. Is it leading the team? … When it is time to play the Bengals, we will have a solid decision.”

All we have to go off of is what we saw during the six OTA practices and three minicamp days, and it produced some winners and losers, at least to the point of what we thought before the start of spring ball.

Here is who won and lost in the QB derby that is in its infancy, and pardon me if I don’t give you what you’re looking for:

The Steelers said the pecking order in camp was based on experience and résumé, so it made sense that Trubisky got plenty of first-team snaps over the three weeks.

Go ahead and don’t read anything into that like we’ve been told, but Trubisky worked almost solely with Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, Pat Freiermuth and the starting offensive line. That’s not something that wasn’t thought out thoroughly by Tomlin. I don’t know how you can look at what Trubisky was afforded to do and think he’s not almost assured of being the starter for the season opener.

“I’m preparing to be a starter,” Trubisky said. “I feel like, no matter what position you’re in, that’s the way you should prepare. I wouldn’t read too much into it, but I’m getting a lot of good reps. I feel comfortable in the offense. I feel very confident.”

It looks like Trubisky was made for Canada’s motion-heavy offense. He’s very fluid with his movements and showed the ability several times to tuck the ball and run, but this offense isn’t going to afford him those opportunities often. There’s going to be a lot of misdirection and quick throws.

“I am picking Mitch’s brain, trying to get that relationship with him,” Johnson said. “That is what is most exciting to me. Taking it a day at a time. When we are in practice, if a ball is coming my way, whatever play it is, just show that communication that we do have. I want to show it’s going to continue to grow for everybody.”

Trubisky’s arm strength down the field wasn’t on display much and when it was, he wouldn’t have outthrown Ben Roethlisberger. But Trubisky’s deep-ball chances were not only surprising but accurate. The most memorable one was to rookie George Pickens earlier in the week.

“He’s been one of the quarterbacks to release it for sure,” Pickens said. “Throw it down the field. A lot of the guys have been trying to get with the program, which is fine, you only have so many reps. But yeah, he’s been launching it.”

Rudolph getting all the second-team reps was kind of surprising but also understandable, considering Pickett is a rookie and Rudolph has been with the Steelers for some time now.

Regardless of where he landed in the rep pecking order, Rudolph looked the best of the four quarterbacks. Surely, you scoff at that notion, but Rudolph has used the past three weeks to at least put himself in the conversation of being in the battle, even though it remains a long shot.

“I got a lot of high expectations for myself every day,” Rudolph said. “We had a couple of third-down periods (Wednesday) and moved the chains and gave our guys a chance to make some plays. I try not to get too far ahead because you don’t want to take for granted what’s in front of you.”

Rudolph is a meticulous worker, and you see that come through on the field during the spring, as he works scripts before practice and goes over plays that aren’t on the script for that day just to make sure he is prepared. His arm looked strong, he made a lot of good throws, probably threw the most consistent ball and showed off what Canada requires all of his quarterbacks to do — move with the ball.

Rudolph is by far the biggest of the four quarterbacks on the roster and ran a mostly pro-style offense in college at Oklahoma State and in his first four years with the Steelers. It was quite noticeable that Rudolph can do naked bootlegs, move the pocket and throw, and make other movements Canada requires out of his quarterback.

“We did the jet sweeps last year,” Rudolph said. “Maybe not as many nakeds. We have upped the nakeds and the play-actions, and I think I did that well.

“This is the best opportunity I’ve had in four years,” Rudolph added. “I am excited, and I look forward to competing.”

Rudolph: Winner … especially considering that many viewed him as nothing more than a camp body.

When Canada talked about having a pretty set plan in place to determine who will be the Steelers’ Week 1 starter, you can deduce that the first part of that plan was to use spring practices as a time for Pickett to learn the playbook and learn how to be a pro, as the vets say.

The more comfortable Pickett gets with the scheme, responsibilities and nuances of the playbook now, the better chance there will be to have actual competition in training camp.

Pickett being the third-string quarterback throughout was a little surprising considering what the Steelers invested in the former Pitt quarterback. The number of reps wasn’t very different from Trubisky or Rudolph, but the receivers he threw to the most were. That’s the one downside of putting your most talented quarterback as a third-teamer.

“I felt pretty good,” Pickett said. “They threw a lot at us, and tried to do the best I can of studying everything. There were a lot of installs, and I was trying to do my best to get ready every day. I feel good at where I am at.”

Pickett seemed to pick it up quickly. It didn’t hurt that there was some crossover in terms of language in the playbook from when Canada recruited Pickett to Pitt. It helped Pickett streamline his learning and focus on the basics rather than the minutia.

“He knows everything (in the playbook), and sometimes I am like, ‘Yo, what do I have here?’ because we have some new plays going in, and he will tell me,” Claypool said.

“Kenny has been working his tail off. He is always in the office putting in the extra amount of time,” quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan said.

If you are going to nitpick, you can make an argument that the ball didn’t come out of Pickett’s hands as cleanly at times as Trubisky and Rudolph, but that’s something that could go along with getting the ball out of his hands a lot quicker than he did in college.

If this was indeed the learning stage portion of Tomlin’s grand plan, then it makes plenty of sense. Still, you would like to see Pickett have more of an opportunity to shine than he did.

“Going through a practice, going through some weeks here, learning how to be a professional and watching these guys and taking things from them and trying to be the best pro I can be, so I think it was a 100 percent successful spring,” he said.

Pickett: Loser … with a huge caveat that maybe we were expecting to see Heisman Trophy finalist Kenny Pickett emerge in the spring.

Oladokun’s snaps weren’t plentiful, but a fourth-team quarterback’s opportunities are never robust.

“The reps didn’t come often, but when they did, I better be ready for the opportunity,” Oladokun said. “It is a battle with me mentally staying locked in all the time, but I think I did a pretty good job of that. I talked a lot to the coaches about that, about being locked in.”

The Steelers used a seventh-round pick on Oladokun even though he said that he would’ve signed as a free agent after the draft if he was undrafted. Either way, Oladokun looked like a guy who didn’t get many reps and came from a small college.

“My main goal was to learn the system, learn the guys in the room, and I feel like I accomplished that,” Oladokun said. “I feel a lot better today than I would have the first day. It’s still a work in progress in learning the offense.”

Oladokun got an opportunity at the two-minute drill and red-zone drill, so not all was lost. He said he scrambled for a touchdown in the final practice, but Tomlin wouldn’t allow it.

Oladokun is a project, and the biggest takeaway was him having an extra quarterbacks coach to work with in David Corley, who was hired to assist Sullivan on April 19.

“It is a huge benefit for me to have Coach Corley being there,” Oladokun said. “We even sit at the same desk in the meeting room. We talk all the time on the field and in the meeting room, and the pointers he gives me are beneficial.”

Oladokun: N/A … not enough reps to call it either way.

(Top photo of Mitch Trubisky, 10, Kenny Pickett, 8, and Mason Rudolph, 2: Brandon Sloter / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)