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: Which of the top five quarterbacks in the 2022 NFL Draft class do you most hope the Steelers will avoid?
Inspired by Dave’s late-night Twitter question last night, I figured I would bring it out to our general audience. I’m sure this has the potential to provoke quite a discussion. The draft is under two weeks away, and we may well know by then whom the Steelers view as their next franchise quarterback.
So which of the potential first-round options do you most hope that quarterback is not? Let’s consider the top five as consisting of the following group, in alphabetical order by last name: Matt Corral; Sam Howell; Kenny Pickett; Desmond Ridder; and Malik Willis.
Of that group of five, let’s say all five are on the board at 20. Which name would you most like not to hear? This isn’t a class of quarterbacks that comes without warts. We’ve already had plenty of discussions about which quarterback you think is the best.
But which quarterback do you think would be the biggest mistake to draft, in the long run? Not a believer in Willis’ upside? Not convinced by Ridder’s situational statistics? Unimpressed by Pickett’s ceiling? Scared of Howell’s read ability at the next level? Worried about Corral’s durability?
Let’s hear it. Let’s get it all out there before the draft. There’s a pretty decent chance one of these guys will be wearing the black and gold pretty soon (though that’s far from guaranteed). So which do you really hope it won’t be?
