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: Should the Steelers be interested in Baker Mayfield, and if so, at what price?
With the 2022 NFL Draft now just a week away, there are still some meaningful dominoes that could be left to fall into place before then that will help shape how the first couple of rounds might play out. One of them is whether or not Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield gets moved by then.
If you’re reading this, then you already have all of the background information behind that situation, or at least enough to understand why he is on the trade block, so there’s no need to belabor it. But with the Steelers in need of quarterback assistance, should they be interested?
It has been suggested that they would be if he were cut, which is almost surely not going to happen, but let’s just talk hypothetically. Let’s say the Browns do cut Mayfield. Should the Steelers want to bring him in? And what should they be willing to do in order to get him?
I would guess that the majority believe he is better than Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph. Opinions might differ on whether or not he is better than any of the prospects coming out of college this year, though there are certainly those who believe Trubisky is better than this year’s quarterbacks.
But can Mayfield be a Super Bowl-winning quarterback? The 2020 Browns made the playoffs as much or more on their running game than on the passing game. So why should we believe that he can take this Steelers team to the playoffs?
