Throughout this offseason, several members of the media, as well as fans of the team, have been pressing the Pittsburgh Steelers to sign a veteran quarterback to backup starter Ben Roethlisberger in 2020. Several others implored the team to at least draft another quarterback this year, which predictably, at least to most of us who are sane and follow the Steelers closely, didn’t happen. On Wednesday, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert once again let everyone know that the team never had in intentions of adding another quarterback to the roster this offseason in his interview on 105.9 The X.
“No,” Colbert said. “I mean, look, throughout Ben’s career, this whole situation has changed, and I’ve spoken about it. When Ben was a young player, we chose to have more experienced players behind him. As he matured and moved along in his career, we always wanted to have a young ascending player [behind him]. And we’ve done that with Landry Jones and Joshua Dobbs and now with Mason Rudolph.”
Colbert then proceeded to talk more about how the team is comfortable with the quarterbacks they currently have under contract backing up Roethlisberger and why there’s no interest in adding another more experienced one this offseason
“We felt good about what he [Rudolph] was able to do last year as well as Devlin,” Colbert said. “You know, those two guys were put in a tough situation [last season] and they made the best of what they could do. And again, we talk about Mason’s record was 5-3 and Devlin’s record was 3-3 as starters. Now, could we have won more? Could we have won less? Sure, and there were all different kinds of factors that went into that, but we were comfortable with it last year and we’re comfortable with it this year. And we’re even more comfortable really believing that Ben will come out of this in a more healthy manner and maybe even as a better player.”
Colbert then went on to talk more about Roethlisberger returning from his elbow injury in 2020 and the quarterbacks who will battle to back him up this coming season.
“Sometimes you take a full year off, sure there’ll be some rust, but with his [Roethlisberger’s] years of experience, that won’t be too big an issue once he gets up and running in a practice setting,” Colbert said Wednesday. “But he’ll have a year of rest on his legs, on his body and we’re comfortable that his arm will recover and he he’ll be who he was and maybe even more than. But in the meantime, we hope that Mason and Devlin continue to show some improvement as well as a guy like Paxton Lynch, who has first round talents and we didn’t really get to see him because we got him later last year.”
It’s amazing that Colbert has had to continue to say all offseason that the team has no interest in signing a veteran quarterback this summer as his message every time he’s talked on the topic has been consistent. Even so, that won’t keep the sports radio DJ goons or the major media “experts” from continuing to suggest that the Steelers sign the veteran free agent quarterback of the week, which the last few weeks as been Cam Newton.
If you really want the Steelers to sign someone like Newton, you better start hoping that Roethlisberger’s elbow rehab takes a turn for a worse because that’s really the only way the team would consider adding an experienced quarterback. Colbert and the Steelers are happy with Mason Rudolph, Devlin Hodges, and Paxton Lynch all being behind Roethlisberger right now with youngster J.T. Barrett bringing up the rear on the depth chart. You’re simply wasting your breath thinking that will change.
