With their 2024 season over, it doesn’t feel like Russell Wilson is the answer at quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers going forward. Since Ben Roethlisberger retired, they haven’t had consistent quarterback play. That’s one of the reasons they’ve lost five playoff games in a row. Former NFL defensive lineman Booger McFarland believes the Steelers need to finally find their next franchise quarterback.
“At some point, you can’t continue to put a Band-Aid on a wound that needs stitches.” McFarland said recently on ESPN’s NFL Primtime. “And that wound is the quarterback position. Since Ben Roethlisberger, they’ve been searching. Kenny Pickett wasn’t the answer. Russell Wilson, Justin Fields. At some point, they have to figure out the quarterback position and get some more playmakers.”
After Roethlisberger retired, the Steelers selected Pickett in the first round of the 2022 draft. However, that proved to be the wrong decision. It quickly became apparent Pickett wasn’t a franchise quarterback. Now, it feels like the Steelers are in quarterback purgatory.
This year, the Steelers used a different strategy to attack the quarterback position. They signed Wilson, a veteran who seemed to be past his prime. Although Wilson flashed at times, he ultimately wasn’t consistent enough to take the Steelers to the next level.
There was a lot of optimism surrounding Fields after the Steelers traded for him. A former first-round pick, Fields is a gifted athlete. However, he apparently didn’t show enough to beat Wilson out for the starting job. It seems unlikely that he’s the answer for the Steelers either.
It has only been three seasons since Roethlisberger retired, but after their latest playoff failure, it does feel like the Steelers are in desperate need of their next franchise quarterback. Unfortunately, they won’t have a high draft pick this year. If they want to acquire one of the top signal callers in the draft, they’ll need to trade up.
Even if the Steelers trade up, there’s no guarantee the player they take will pan out. They do need to upgrade at quarterback before next season.
Wilson and Fields are both free agents and investing a great deal of time and money into either of them seems unwise. The Steelers might need to go in a different direction, and hopefully, it isn’t just another one-year rental. It doesn’t feel like that’s going to get them any closer to winning a playoff game.
