The Pittsburgh Steelers are undoubtedly doing a ton of homework on the quarterbacks in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft. They’ve met extensively with multiple quarterbacks, including Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, and Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart. But the specter of former Steelers and now Cleveland Browns QB Kenny Pickett could very well be haunting the halls in the team’s practice facility.
Three years ago, the Steelers invested the 20th overall pick in Pickett. And after two years of incredibly unspectacular quarterback play, they signed QB Russell Wilson to a free agent contract. And within the week, Pickett was across the state with the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Steelers had traded for Justin Fields.
Insider Gerry Dulac thinks that the Steelers’ swing and miss on Pickett is still giving the decision makers in Pittsburgh pause when evaluating this class of quarterbacks.
“They are not going into the draft with the idea of ‘We need to get ourselves a quarterback in the first round,'” Dulac said Friday on the Rich Eisen Show. “And I do think, to a degree, I think they’re still spooked by the whole Kenny Pickett evaluation. They took what was the best quarterback of what was a very average draft class, and I don’t think they want to make that mistake again.”
While the @steelers continue their waiting for Aaron Rodgers — what is their plan at QB for the coming years?#NFL #NFLDraft #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/R86Df34I6Y
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) April 18, 2025
On one hand, it’s completely understandable that people in the Steelers’ building would be affected by the Pickett miss. They took a swing at drafting a first-round quarterback to replace recently retired Ben Roethlisberger. However, as Dulac said, they did it in an average-at-best quarterback class.
And they took a big cut at a quarterback who did not have a consistent college career. Kenny Pickett was mediocre at best prior to the 2021 season. He never had a season with more than 13 passing touchdowns to that point. His career-high completion percentage prior to 2021 was 61.6.
Then, in 2021, Pickett exploded. He completed 67.2 percent of his passes, threw for 4,319 yards (over 1,200 more yards than his previous career high), and 42 touchdowns. And the Steelers picked him 20th overall.
We all saw Pickett never truly take the next step as a quarterback with the Steelers. His numbers were always more like his pre-2021 college days, not that breakout season. So yeah, you can understand some apprehension among the Steelers’ decision makers.
But if the Steelers never overcome that spooked feeling, they’ll never take another big swing. And that means little chance of finding a franchise quarterback anytime soon. They don’t grow on trees, and your best chance is spending a first-round pick on one.
Head coach Mike Tomlin loves to say the Steelers don’t live in their fears. But according to Dulac, that’s exactly what they’re doing when it comes to the quarterbacks in this draft. That’s extremely frustrating. Now, you can point to the amount of work they’re putting in and say they aren’t avoiding the issue.
And I would wholeheartedly agree with that. They have certainly done more than their due diligence on guys like Dart and Milroe. But are they doing that with the intention of selecting one of them if he’s the guy? Or are they approaching it from the lens of the Pickett experience? As in, they’re trying to poke holes in these prospects, looking for a reason not to draft them.
That seems more like what Dulac is suggesting here. But if that’s true, you can certainly argue that’s a waste of resources. You traveled to meet with and brought in multiple quarterbacks. To do that much to try to rule quarterbacks out is borderline crazy.
Dulac’s viewpoint isn’t shared by everyone around Pittsburgh. Insider Ray Fittipaldo says that the Steelers are considering taking a quarterback in the first round. Welcome to the NFL draft, the time when no one can agree, and you’ll hear contradictory statements about the same team within minutes.
And the ghost of the 20th overall pick in 2022 will continue to haunt the Steelers until they exorcise it by finding a quarterback to genuinely replace Ben Roethlisberger.
