The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others—some already decided, some not.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor was re-signed, but Trai Turner was not. James Daniels and Mason Cole were added in free agency.
These are the sorts of topics among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: Did the Steelers make the right decision with their first-round draft pick?
With the final first-round selection in Kevin Colbert’s career as the Steelers’ general manager, he hopes to have gone out by setting the team up for the future, selecting Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett to be their next leader.
Not everybody is convinced that that will be the case. Least of all Steelers fans, though Pitt fans sure seem to be convinced. Only time will tell, of course, and I’m sure we can all but guarantee that Pickett will be given every opportunity to succeed in Pittsburgh.
The Steelers didn’t have to go with a quarterback, but they did. The fact that they had every possible quarterback available for them to select, ensuring that they could get the top one on their board, didn’t hurt, either.
But did they err in which quarterback they chose? Should it have been Malik Willis? Desmond Ridder? Matt Corral? Alex Kozora had Pickett as his fourth-ranked quarterback in this class with a second-round grade, and almost everybody seems to believe that while he has a high floor, he’s already near his ceiling.
The Steelers could have taken cornerback Trent McDuffie, who went 21st, or linebacker Quay Walker, at 22. Tyler Linderbaum went to the Ravens at 25. Safeties Daxton Hill and Lewis Cine closed out the round with the final two selections. Wide receivers like Christian Watson and George Pickens were still on the board. Should they have traded down?
