Now that the 2021 season is over, bringing yet another year of disappointment, a fifth consecutive season with no postseason victories, it’s time to take stock of where the Pittsburgh Steelers stand. Specifically, where Steelers players stand individually based on what we have seen and are seeing over the course of the season and into the offseason as it plays out. We will also be reviewing players based on their previous season and their prospects for the future. A stock evaluation can take a couple of different approaches and I’ll try to make clear my reasoning. In some cases, it will be based on more long-term trends. In other instances, it will be a direct response to something that just happened. Because of this, we can and will see a player more than once over the course of the season as we move forward.
Player: QB Joshua Dobbs
Stock Value: Sold
Reasoning: With Joshua Dobbs signing with the Cleveland Browns yesterday, that ends at least his latest chapter with the Steelers.
General manager Kevin Colbert said all along that the Steelers would bring four quarterbacks into training camp. They currently have three. Head coach Mike Tomlin has said that they are targeting the draft to add another one.
But what if they failed to come away with a quarterback that they liked and went without drafting one? Personally, I always assumed that Dobbs would remain in play post-draft as an option for that fourth arm. Obviously he wouldn’t be a favorite to compete for the starting job, but it’s not like anybody they add post-draft would fit that category anyway.
Originally drafted in the fourth round in 2017 by the Steelers, Dobbs was actually moved once before. The Steelers drafted him for a fifth-round pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars a couple of years ago. They brought him back as soon as he was cut a year later.
Dobbs was undoubtedly going to be cut by the Steelers last year at the end of the preseason behind Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph, and Dwayne Haskins, had he not been injured and placed on the Reserve/Injured List instead.
Now, though, he is free, and at least temporarily has found a home still in the AFC North with the Cleveland Browns. Obviously, they have undergone a shakeup at quarterback, trading the farm for Deshaun Watson. They also acquired Jacoby Brissett. Dobbs could now be their third quarterback, giving them a trio of mobile arms who could better replicate what their new starter would be expected to give them in terms of being a dual threat.
Dobbs won’t be guaranteed anything, but it is perhaps yet another sign that an eventual trade of Baker Mayfield remains inevitable. They are clearly changing the look of their running back room by turning the room over with Case Keenum and Nick Mullens already gone, who better resembled Mayfield than Watson.
