The immediate aftermath of an embarrassing first-round exit in the playoffs is never pleasant for a team, but the Pittsburgh Steelers appear to be at a particular impasse this time around. There is no obvious path forward toward reaching their goals. Last year, you could point to the offensive coordinator, the quarterback situation, or the rash of injuries on defense. All of those things changed and improved in 2024 but came with the same exact results.
Chase Daniel thinks it’s time to blow the whole thing up.
“You look at Russell Wilson, yeah, he didn’t play great down the stretch. He played well in the second half. But does he come back?” Daniel said via Scoop City on YouTube. “Justin Fields is a free agent. Russell Wilson is a free agent. They don’t have a quarterback. Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren are both free agents as well. It’s like, what do you do? I think it’s time for a total rebuild.
“You have to find the quarterback of the future. You cannot put a Band-Aid over the quarterback. That’s been the issue for Mike Tomlin since he’s really [not had] Ben Roethlisberger. Since he’s left, they haven’t had a quarterback.”
Even in the last couple years of Roethlisberger’s career, the Steelers didn’t really have a quarterback who was capable of accomplishing their goals. The biggest disappointments of the whole playoff drought were the 2017 and 2018 seasons when Roethlisberger was still capable and Antonio Brown was still with the team. Since then, they haven’t had a true solution at quarterback. That is six seasons of spinning their wheels as a franchise.
All eight teams in the Divisional Round of the playoffs have a franchise quarterback. The Houston Texans and the Washington Commanders showed how fast things can turn around with the right quarterback leading the team. They were both bottom dwellers until they landed C.J. Stroud and Jayden Daniels over the last two drafts.
The issue is that the Steelers have made the playoffs in four out of those six years that they’ve been without a franchise quarterback. That leaves them with unfavorable draft slots and no real way to address the position. Besides outliers like Sam Darnold, free agent quarterbacks rarely help turn things around for a franchise. And even the Minnesota Vikings fizzled out in the first round of the playoffs after going 14-3 record in the regular season.
Since 2019, here are the quarterbacks who have been signed in free agency and won a playoff game:
– Baker Mayfield (1)
– Kirk Cousins (1)
– Tom Brady (5)
Brady is the notable exception with a Super Bowl, but he is the best quarterback of all time. Drew Brees is another who won a Super Bowl after being a free agent, but his situation was a little different with major injury concerns at the time. Peyton Manning did it with the Denver Broncos as well.
Very rarely do quarterbacks picked up in free agency make a difference for their new team. That makes this “total rebuild” that Daniel speaks of even harder. The Steelers would have to have strong enough conviction in a quarterback prospect to mortgage the future to move up to get him. This year, the quarterback class is viewed as weaker than normal.
Since 2000, the only quarterbacks who weren’t drafted in the first round that went on to win a Super Bowl are Tom Brady, Nick Foles and Russell Wilson. There have been several solid quarterbacks, like Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins, but you can see how rare it is to strike gold outside the first round. Over that same time, there have only been 14 quarterbacks to make the Pro Bowl who were drafted (or undrafted) outside the first round.
A total rebuild would have to either mean a year or two of having regular-season records well below .500 or a large gamble with a trade up.
The one possibly intriguing situation is what happens with the Vikings this offseason. Will they try to re-sign Sam Darnold after a 14-3 season? If they do, could 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy be available for a trade? If not, could the Steelers look at Darnold? He will be expensive and just lost in the first round of the playoffs. There is no easy answer.
