For the 2023 season, I would have described the Pittsburgh Steelers as overachievers. They got to 10-7 and snuck into the playoffs despite starting three different quarterbacks, dealing with a rash of injuries on defense, and having Matt Canada as their offensive coordinator. The 2024 season was quite different — and leaves the Steelers on the other side of the coin. They greatly underachieved, and there are far less excuses to point to for their shortcomings.
Last offseason, it was easy to convince yourself that if the Steelers could just get the right quarterback, or if the defense could just stay healthy, or if they could just get a real offensive coordinator that their problems would go away. They greatly improved in all three areas, and it ultimately didn’t matter. It’s now much harder to see a positive path forward.
“It’s so rare that we look at Pittsburgh and you’re like, ‘Where is this franchise headed?'” Kyle Brandt said Monday via Good Morning Football. “It seems directionless. Even if they lose, even if they barely miss the playoffs, they always have a direction. You always know that brand, what you’re getting.”
The offense is already weak, and now the Steelers have some pretty significant questions to answer this offseason. Is Arthur Smith going to end up taking one of these head coaching opportunities? Will Russell Wilson or Justin Fields return? If not, who the heck is the quarterback? It seems unlikely that Najee Harris will be back so they could be right back in running back purgatory like they were just four years ago. Jaylen Warren will be around, but can he be an every-down back?
What happens with George Pickens? He is under contract next year, but if you don’t extend him, he’s a lame duck ahead of 2026 free agency. Is that going to cause issues that the Steelers don’t want to deal with?
For the defense, how much longer can Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt continue to dominate? Is Minkah Fitzpatrick a part of the solution to keep him around at his price tag? If the defense can’t carry the Steelers any longer, are they headed for bottom-dweller status in the NFL?
The problems feel way less fixable than they did a year ago, and with pick No. 21 in the draft, it’s not going to be easy to address the quarterback issue if Wilson or Fields don’t fit into the Steelers’ plans. It’s also important to consider they just had Wilson on a $1.21 million contract. No matter what they decide to do, it will be more expensive than that, so they’ll have a bigger percent of the salary cap tied up in quarterback, leaving less to improve the roster elsewhere.
To briefly paint the positive side of things, GM Omar Khan has drafted better than Kevin Colbert did over his last several years. Bad drafting got them into this mess in a lot of ways. Things also could have looked different had the offensive line played at a high level all year. There is at least some hope that happens sooner rather than later with the recent investments, but the Steelers suffered an inordinate number of injuries, including a season-ending one to their 2024 first-round pick Troy Fautanu along the o-line. That would be a great start to turning things around if that group can become dominant.
Regardless, there are far more questions than answers this offseason for the Steelers.
