Last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed QB Russell Wilson in an attempt to finally win a playoff game for the first time since 2016. It didn’t work, as the Steelers went one-and-done in the postseason, and now they’re in a familiar situation: waiting on a decision from free agent QB Aaron Rodgers, whom they’re hoping can bring postseason success. But former NFL RB LeSean McCoy doesn’t think life with Rodgers will be any better for the Steelers than it was with Wilson, and it’s not because of quarterback play.
“The question is how dangerous would the Steelers be with Rodgers? That’s as dangerous as Dangerous Russ [Wilson]. Playoff team,” McCoy said Tuesday on FS1’s The Facility. “Because the identity of the Steelers, I don’t care who the quarterback is, even with Big Ben [Roethlisberger], it’s defense. Defense was bad last year. You talk about to the middle to the end of the year, they were one of the worst.”
“I don’t care what Rodgers can even do. We’re a defensive team, and we get sacks. They wasn’t getting no sacks last year.”
McCoy said that at this point, Rodgers might be “a little better” than Wilson, but they’re close enough that he doesn’t think Rodgers will make a difference due to Pittsburgh’s other issues, pointing out the offensive line and run game in addition to the defense.
For what it’s worth, the run game will look different with Kaleb Johnson joining Jaylen Warren and free agent signee Kenneth Gainwell, and Troy Fautanu will take over as a starter along the offensive line after missing almost all of his rookie season with a knee injury. There’s reason to think both those areas can improve, and the same goes for the defense.
Pittsburgh drafted Derrick Harmon in the first round and signed Darius Slay and Brandin Echols to help bolster its secondary, and it’s fair to expect improvement from players like Payton Wilson and Joey Porter Jr. this season as they continue to develop. The Steelers’ pass rush did fade a bit in 2024, and they finished the season with 40 sacks, which ranked in the bottom half of the league.
The pass rush struggled to get home and lapses in the secondary led to defensive struggles down the stretch. The run defense also completely fell apart in the team’s playoff loss, so McCoy’s apprehension about the defense is fair given what the Steelers most recently put on tape.
But Russell Wilson shouldn’t be excused either, as the offense failed to score more than 17 points over its five games, and he struggled with holding onto the football too long and poor decision making. It’s reasonable to expect the defense to improve, and it was one of the better units in football over the first half of the season. It’s not as if it’s a defense devoid of talent that continually had issues last season.
McCoy’s take just seems like a little bit of recency bias. It’s fair, because there’s no argument to be made that Pittsburgh’s defense was good toward the end of last year. But he admitted that Rodgers is better than Wilson, and with the team also acquiring WR DK Metcalf, there’s upside for Rodgers to take the Steelers to a level that Wilson couldn’t reach if he signs.
As a whole, the team is going to need to improve, but the defense shouldn’t be the reason to cap the Steelers’ ceiling.
