Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2022 season is over, the team finishing above .500 but failing to make the postseason, we turn our attention to the offseason and everything that means. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on broader contexts, reflecting on a player’s development, either positively or negatively, over the course of the season. Other evaluations will reflect only one immediate event or trend. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: QB Tanner Morgan
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: Since his signing after the 2023 NFL Draft as a college free agent, Tanner Morgan saw his stature fall from third quarterback to fourth—typically the difference between having a job and not having a job—as a result of the Steelers’ signing of Mason Rudolph.
There was never going to be a scenario in which Tanner Morgan was going to be handed a spot on the 53-man roster. He was going to have to earn it one way or another. But many assumed that he would probably be competing against another quarterback of a similar background, a low-pedigreed, inexperienced player.
The Steelers bringing back Mason Rudolph was a huge blow for Morgan in terms of his odds of making the team. The former not only has five years of NFL experience, including a healthy number of starts, he also has that half a decade in Pittsburgh’s system and culture.
While there is a reason Rudolph is back in Pittsburgh rather than with, well, virtually any other team, that doesn’t diminish the fact that he has been a solid depth option for the team over the years. It goes without saying that he is the overwhelming favorite to win the third quarterback spot over Morgan.
One wonders if Rudolph might not even have been given a sort of “soft promise” of a roster spot for returning, because it still very much seems as though it’s a situation he was hoping to avoid this offseason. When no desirable opportunities surfaced in the first month and a half of free agency, though, he had an evident change of heart.
With Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky entrenched in the top two spots, it’s really difficult to envision a scenario in which Morgan can make the 53-man roster. There has been some suggestion that the team should consider retaining him on the practice squad for 2024 if he shows up well enough, given Rudolph’s unlikely status beyond this season.
But he would have to be pretty impressive to merit that kind of treatment from Pittsburgh, because it’s hard enough to get work for three quarterbacks during the regular season, let alone four.
