The late, great John Madden once said, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none,” and the Steelers are going to find out how true that statement is in 2024. After gutting the 2023 QB room of Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph, the Steelers brought in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields to compete for the top job with Wilson having “pole position” entering offseason practices.
Gordon McGuinness of Pro Football Focus listed one reason why every AFC team won’t make the playoffs in 2024. Obviously seven teams will ultimately make the playoffs, so this is more of an exercise as to what could go wrong if each AFC team ultimately falters. Here is what he wrote about the Steelers.
“The Steelers’ two quarterback additions this offseason look to be upgrades from Kenny Pickett, who earned a 70.6 PFF grade in 2023, and Mason Rudolph (65.5). Both Justin Fields and Russell Wilson, who earned 74.6 and 77.5 PFF grades, respectively, were better in 2023. However, as John Madden once said, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none,” and if there’s something that could hurt the Steelers in 2024, it’s not knowing who their best quarterback is. That being said, this is a Mike Tomlin-led Steelers team. The Steelers’ floor is likely nine wins and the No. 7 seed.”
Madden’s statement has had plenty of cases where it ended up being true over the years, as a quarterback controversy can create a big distraction for teams. Even the 2022 and 2023 Steelers teams experienced some of this with tough decisions to be made surrounding Pickett, Trubisky, and Rudolph at various points. If the starter isn’t performing well and there is a quarterback who is viewed as being capable sitting on the bench, the fans are going to apply pressure in the stadium. Steelers fans have been known to boo the team, especially in recent years.
It then becomes a question in every interview session after every game and during the press conferences throughout the week. It just isn’t something that anyone on the team wants to deal with in an ideal world.
But there have also been examples of it working out just fine. The Green Bay Packers have executed two quarterback transitions pretty flawlessly over the last couple decades with Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers and then Rodgers to Jordan Love. Where things could get more interesting in the Steelers’ case is if Fields is installed in special packages while he is still the backup. If he performs well in those packages it will ramp up the pressure.
The difficult schedule could also play a role in fueling the fires of the QB controversy if the Steelers go on a losing streak like the one they experienced toward the end of last season.
On the positive end of things, Fields and Wilson are both saying all the right things at this time. Fields was humble about the competition in his first Pittsburgh media session, stating he doesn’t have the mindset of sitting on the bench the whole season, but also acknowledging that he has a lot to learn from Wilson. There doesn’t appear to be any animosity between the two at this point. For now, it seems like the ideal situation to keep Wilson on his toes and push Fields to his limits with both quarterbacks entering a contract year.
McGuinness also stated that the Steelers’ floor is probably a winning record and the final wild card seed, so PFF clearly doesn’t view it as too big of an issue.
