The word of the offseason for the Pittsburgh Steelers is competition, which they continue to employ liberally regarding the quarterback position and Kenny Pickett. Head coach Mike Tomlin inaugurated that trend in his final 2023 press conference, announcing his intention to challenge Pickett. They’re also on record as hoping to re-sign Mason Rudolph as part of that competition.
And apparently they are interested in Russell Wilson now as well. Still, general manager Omar Khan maintains that the Steelers “have confidence in Kenny”, though to what degree? He offered some interesting comments in an interview with WPXI’s Jenna Harner.
“We have a new offensive coordinator and new quarterback coach, and it’s been cool to learn about what their vision is for the offense and how they would utilize Kenny”, he maintained. Having said that, he added, “Competition’s gonna be important. We’re gonna bring in some players. How we’re gonna acquire them, we’ll see. We’ll let those guys go out there and compete”.
We’ll let those guys go out there and compete.
He’s referring to the quarterback position and leaving every door open for talent acquisition. Perhaps the Steelers have put some phone calls in to Chicago about Justin Fields. Perhaps they do intend to meet with Wilson in the coming days. You know they’re studying this year’s quarterback class, even if they don’t draft one early.
Perhaps Khan’s most notable comments are the references to the offense and Arthur Smith. Even during the NFL Scouting Combine, he repeatedly deferred to the plan as it’s assembling and how that dictates outcomes. They will have to decide which quarterback best runs the offense.
“It’s gonna be a work in progress”, he said when asked what they need to see from Pickett in Smith’s offense to cement him as the starter. “They’re putting a game plan together and they’re molding it, and we’ll have guys here to compete and we’ll see where it goes”.
Now that’s interesting. He fields a question about what the Steelers needs to see from Pickett, and he redirects it to a competition. Now, I know a lot of Steelers fans remain gun shy about the term and its legitimacy relative to the quarterback position, but this is a team that kept Pickett on the bench for a must-win season finale and a playoff game.
As we wrote previously, Khan seems to sound perhaps less optimistic about retaining Rudolph. At least, he’s resigned to the fact that they are at an impasse with him until he hits the market. They won’t know how they must valuate him to retain him until others set his price and expectations.
I am very curious to see just how quickly the dominoes fall, if they fall at all. If the Steelers meet with Wilson before free agency what are the odds they reach a deal with him by Wednesday? We know the Steelers have to add two or three more quarterbacks in some form or fashion. We can reasonably assume they will bring in at least one veteran. But who?
