The Pittsburgh Steelers are awaiting a decision from free agent QB Aaron Rodgers before figuring out what their 2025 quarterback room will look like, but their quarterback plan has drawn the ire of former NFL running back LeSean McCoy. On FS1’s The Facility, McCoy said the way the Steelers are breaking new ground with how they’ve handled their quarterback situation.
And not in a good way.
“This is the first time, I gotta be honest, that the Pittsburgh Steelers look like an incompetent franchise,” McCoy said. “You go out there, spend $125 million on a superstar wide receiver with no quarterback. What are we doing here?
“Is this the Steelers or is this the Jets? Is this the Browns, is this the Colts? I’m disappointed with the Steelers franchise, what they’re doing right now.”
McCoy said that the Steelers should’ve just re-signed Russell Wilson since he believes he wasn’t the problem last season.
The Colts, Browns and Jets, like the Steelers, have tried to draft a franchise quarterback in recent years, but it hasn’t worked out. While Anthony Richardson still will have a shot to prove his worth in Indianapolis, the team signed a veteran in Daniel Jones and like Pittsburgh, those three teams have had somewhat of a revolving door at the quarterback position lately.
The Steelers have had more success than all three of those franchises, but they haven’t had any real semblance of quarterback stability post-Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers attempted to find their franchise guy in Kenny Pickett, but he was traded after just two seasons when the team signed Russell Wilson last year. Pittsburgh will open Week 1 with a different quarterback starting for the fifth year in a row after Justin Fields signed with the Jets, and it’s fair to question the organization’s quarterback plan.
If Rodgers signs elsewhere, the Steelers likely will be left starting Mason Rudolph. The team is seemingly comfortable with that plan, but that definitely wasn’t the ideal scenario heading into the offseason. Bringing back Russell Wilson feels unlikely at this point, and while McCoy doesn’t think he was the problem, he was brought in to win a playoff game, and the Steelers’ offense completely collapsed down the stretch. There were other issues, but the offense’s inability to move the ball or score was a real issue and it’s understandable why the Steelers might look to move away from Wilson.
It’s also hard to find a long-term solution at quarterback when the team is always drafting in the back half of the first round but not making more of an effort to bring back Justin Fields and now being left waiting on a decision from Rodgers is fair to criticize. I don’t necessarily think the Steelers are incompetent for how things played out, but the fact they haven’t had a more concrete quarterback plan post-Ben Roethlisberger is an issue and it’s one that could plague them in 2025 and beyond.
