After Dan Orlovsky mentioned QB Baker Mayfield could be a fit for the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday, Pro Football Focus named Mayfield the one free agent Pittsburgh should pursue in an article today.
In his article breaking down one free agent each team should go after, Gordon McGuiness thinks the Steelers should be the “first team to pick up the phone” if Mayfield hits the open market.
“It feels very likely that Mayfield will stick around with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but on the off chance that he does hit free agency, the Steelers should be the first team to pick up the phone,” McGuiness writes. “While Mayfield hasn’t lived up to the billing of being a former No. 1 overall pick, he is back at the level of his second and third seasons with the Cleveland Browns, earning a 74.6 PFF grade with 25 big-time throws and 24 turnover-worthy plays in the 2023 regular season.”
Mayfield bounced around the league in 2022, spending time with the Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams, but he revived his career with Tampa Bay this season. The Bucs didn’t have high expectations in the post-Tom Brady era, but Mayfield beat out Kyle Trask for their starting job and led them to the playoffs, and they’ll face the Detroit Lions on Sunday. Mayfield threw for 4,044 yards and 28 touchdowns this season and threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns in a Wild Card Round win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Pittsburgh’s former division rival with the Cleveland Browns would be an upgrade at quarterback for the Steelers.
The question is whether the Steelers want to end the Kenny Pickett era without giving him a chance in his third season. Pickett only played a game and a half before getting hurt after Pittsburgh fired former offensive coordinator Matt Canada, and he ended up losing his starting job after Mason Rudolph played better than any Steelers quarterback has in years when he took over in Week 16. It doesn’t feel like a move Pittsburgh would make to bring in an outside veteran starter, but Mayfield would be an upgrade over the version of Pickett we saw in 2022.
I’m not ready to completely write off Pickett yet, but if the team does retain him as a starter, he’s going to have to show real growth under whomever Pittsburgh hires as its new offensive coordinator. If he can’t do that, the team is going to look for his replacement either internally or next offseason. Pickett can’t afford to struggle the way he did this season, and those struggles could end up costing him his job if the Steelers look for an outside solution such as Mayfield.
