The Pittsburgh Steelers have been aggressive in improving their roster throughout this free agency period so far, especially at the quarterback position where they added Russell Wilson and Justin Fields over the course of one calendar week. Just a season ago, the Steelers were ravaged by injuries at multiple key positions, and they had subpar quarterback play between the three different starters that took the field. They still managed to come out with a 10-win season and a playoff berth.
Naturally, with better quarterbacks on paper and not a ton of impactful departures in free agency, the expectations are going to be higher this season. Anything less than 10 wins in the regular season would be viewed as a disappointment at this point. Russell Wilson seems to be the unquestioned starter heading into the season, but could the lofty expectations placed on this team create a controversy at quarterback sooner rather than later?
Shannon Sharpe appeared on First Take on Monday morning and offered his opinion on this idea.
“Russell Wilson is the quarterback as long as he plays well. I know what they maybe have promised Russ…but my grandpa used to say all the time promises are like pie crust, thin and easily broken,” Sharpe said on First Take. “If you do not play well, Justin Fields is going to come in.”
He has a point about promises in the NFL, especially at the quarterback position. Just three months ago, Pickett lost his job to an injury. He was seemingly promised the first shot at starting in 2024, but that broken promise led to him requesting a trade out of town. The Steelers have very much shown their hand that they are willing to upgrade this roster and win at all costs.
Some of that can be attributed to Omar Khan being more aggressive than Kevin Colbert was, but it is important to also remember team president Art Rooney II expressing impatience at the lack of progression and playoff wins.
“Look at last year, they had the 25th-ranked strength of schedule. This year, third,” Sharpe said. “The expectations are if we got better quarterbacks, our record should be indicative of the better quarterback play. That’s not necessarily true. So there’s going to be pressure on Russ to play well every single game.”
Also factor in that the Steelers have almost nothing actually invested in Wilson with him signing a veteran minimum deal of $1.21 million. Obviously the hope is that Wilson will perform up to expectations or there wouldn’t already be reports of the two sides wanting to work out an extension at some point in the future. But they also hedged that bet with the addition of Fields, whom the team will also have to make a contract decision on next offseason assuming it declines his fifth-year option in May.
