Who will be the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback in 2022? We have a long wait ahead of us before we find out the answer to that question. Heck, even former Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler said Monday during an interview with 93.7 The Fan that he isn’t quite sure how the Steelers quarterback situation will play out in 2022. Butler did, however, talk about the quarterback situation in Pittsburgh exiting the 2021 season with veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger now expected to retire.
“I don’t know,” the recently retired Butler said on Monday about who he thinks might be the Steelers starting quarterback in 2022. “I really have no idea. But I will say this, I think the competition between [Dwayne] Haskin and Mason [Rudolph] will be good for the team. We’ll see what happens. Watching Haskins at practice, I’m a defensive guy, so I don’t know what the offensive coaches are telling him, but from what I saw from him, the guy’s got a good arm and he’s very mobile. And that should be a good competition between those two guys if they don’t bring somebody in from outside.”
We’ve known forever and a day that Haskins has a strong arm so Butler saying that on Monday is not a huge surprise. Butler saying, however, that Haskins is “very mobile” is a bit shocking. After all, Haskins has never shown himself to be a vey mobile quarterback during his college career and brief time in the NFL with the Washington Football Team. In 16 games with Washington, Haskins rushed 40 times for 147 yards and a touchdown with a long of 23 yards.
So, will it wind up being a battle between Haskins and Rudolph later this summer to be the successor to Roethlisberger, or will the team bring in an outsider via free agency or the draft? While Butler does think there’s a chance an outside quarterback of some kind could e brought in during the offseason, he sounds interested in how that would ultimately play out with Matt Canada as the team’s offensive coordinator
“You know, they might bring somebody in from outside,” Butler said on Monday. “But again, how are they going treat that guy? How are they going to put in the offense they want to put in? You know, I think it was kind of a give and take with Ben and Matt in terms of what they wanted to try to do, you know? So, they’ve got to decide who’s the best to run the offense they want to run.”
It really doesn’t sound like Butler knows which way the Steelers will ultimately go at the quarterback position in 2022. Heck, even the Steelers probably aren’t really sure themselves right now. All we really do know right now is that Haskins and Rudolph will both likely be competing for a spot on the quarterback depth chart during the summer. Whether or not they will be competing against a newcomer in the form of a veteran, or a rookie, is yet to be seen. We should, however, have a much better idea once this year’s draft has concluded, if not sooner.
