The Pittsburgh Steelers have scratched and clawed their way over the last three seasons to remain relevant at the end of each season. With nine wins in 2021 and 2022, and a small jump to 10 wins in 2023, the team has a lot of pieces in place to be a highly competitive unit. The only issue is that the Steelers have gotten very little out of the quarterback position over that time. Many believe, including a Thursday morning panel of analysts on ESPN’s Get Up, that the Steelers are a quarterback away from competing. They were named to the panel’s list of top five teams with the most pressure to “win the offseason.”
The pressure is evident in Pittsburgh. There have been calls before for head coach Mike Tomlin’s job before but perhaps never as loud as during the Steelers’ three-game losing skid in December last season. Team president Art Rooney II said that the organization as a whole, including Tomlin himself, are “getting impatient” with the lack of playoff success during one of his end-of-season media sessions. They also made a move in-season to fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada, which was unprecedented for the organization.
Most of the ESPN panel’s talk surrounded finding a quarterback for Pittsburgh.
“The Steelers, I think, are thinking Super Bowl thoughts,” Mike Greenberg said. “They are a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl team. The question is, can they get the quarterback right? Is that quarterback Justin Fields? It would not be the Steeler way to trade significant draft capital to get a quarterback, and that’s what it’s gonna take to get Justin Fields.”
Fields being linked to Pittsburgh has been inevitable since the Bears secured the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft. Many view USC QB Caleb Williams as a can’t-miss prospect and the Bears are going to have plenty of draft capital to initiate a complete overhaul, including a new quarterback and some weapons for him to work with. Our Dave Bryan wrote why trading for Fields is unlikely to happen due to the money and draft capital involved and what it would mean for QB Kenny Pickett, whom the Steelers seem to still have belief in.
“Do they try Russell Wilson? I’m not 100 percent sure teams want him, but he could come so inexpensively,” Greenberg said. “They have the 20th pick, do they take a quarterback there?”
Given Tomlin and Rooney’s words on Pickett and the Steelers’ track record of giving high draft picks every opportunity to progress over their rookie contract, it seems unlikely that they are in the market for a No. 1 quarterback. They could turn to the draft, but with other prominent needs along the offensive line and at cornerback, they may look at late Day Two or Day Three options to fill out the roster.
Fortunately, GM Omar Khan knocked it out of the park last offseason with his additions to the team in free agency and the draft. One more solid haul will leave the Steelers in a much better position with a much better future outlook, regardless of immediately figuring out the future at quarterback.
