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: How many quarterbacks will be drafted before the Steelers’ 20th overall selection in next week’s draft?
The Steelers are slated to hold the 20th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. They are widely anticipated to want to try to draft a quarterback. There are significant doubts that they would actually trade up in order to get one of them, though it is entirely possible that they could if they truly love one of the prospects.
So, barring a trade, the question is this: how many quarterbacks will be drafted by the time the Steelers’ turn to pick comes around? There are, at most, five or six quarterbacks who have been mocked in the first round, and as the draft comes closer, those mocks have gotten a little more conservative, more often seeing three or four going in the first.
By now, it seems as though Kenny Pickett, Malik Willis, and Desmond Ridder are most often the first three quarterbacks taken. Sometimes all of them are taken by 20. Sometimes one of them is available at 20.
Will any of them actually be available at 20 when the actual draft rolls around? And if not, will the Steelers have traded up to get one of them because they knew he wouldn’t be available if they sat and waited? If none of them are available and they didn’t trade up, would they draft Matt Corral, Sam Howell, or Carson Strong, or another position entirely?
