Who could forget the rented Chevy Malibu? In the first few weeks of Aaron Rodgers\u2019 long, drawn-out courtship with the Pittsburgh Steelers last offseason, the future Hall of Fame quarterback flew from California into a still unknown airport, evading the public eye. Wearing a baseball cap and dark aviator sunglasses, he drove through the back gate of the Steelers\u2019 facility for what was intended to be a secret recruiting trip. When word got out that Rodgers was in Pittsburgh, that meeting prompted one of several false alarms \u2014 no contract was signed. It took about 12 more weeks for Rodgers to finally commit, just ahead of mandatory minicamp.<\/p>\n
Fast-forward one year. \u201cI don\u2019t foresee this going like it did last year,\u201d Steelers general manager Omar Khan assured the fan base during the NFL Scouting Combine in February. \u201c\u2026It just isn\u2019t going to go like it did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, here we are: Three weeks into free agency, and the Steelers still don\u2019t have an answer.<\/p>\n
Another offseason of indecision feels unnecessary. It\u2019s created undue drama and risks turning off at least some portion of a fan base that Rodgers won over with his performance last year. More than anything else, it\u2019s the perfect metaphor for the current state of the Steelers.<\/p>\n
In the NFL there are two types of teams. There are those that have a legitimate answer at the most important position \u2014 the ones with a quarterback capable of leading a team deep into the postseason and competing for a Super Bowl. And then there are the teams that don\u2019t. For about the last half-dozen years (maybe longer), the Steelers have fallen squarely in that second category, as Ben Roethlisberger\u2019s play declined with age, and then as the franchise tried \u2014 and repeatedly failed \u2014 to find a successor.<\/p>\n
The first warning sign came in January of 2017, when Roethlisberger indulged in a game of \u201cguess what I\u2019ll do next?\u201d that aging quarterbacks love to play. Shortly after the Steelers lost their first of six consecutive playoff games, Roethlisberger publicly suggested the end could be coming sooner than later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to take this offseason to evaluate, to consider all options,\u201d he said on his Pittsburgh-area radio show. \u201cTo consider health, and family and things like that and just kind of take some time away to evaluate next season, if there\u2019s going to be a next season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite this early flirtation with retirement, the Steelers never seriously invested in a succession plan the way the Green Bay Packers and other franchises have. The one and only time they even attempted to go down that path by drafting Mason Rudolph in the third round \u2014 a completely reasonable way to spend a mid-round pick\u2014 Roethlisberger openly criticized it. Rather than planning ahead, Pittsburgh doubled down on defense, spending nine of 10 first-round picks on that side of the ball from 2011 to 2020 with the goal of building up the roster enough to support an aging quarterback.<\/p>\n
Even when Roethlisberger tore three elbow tendons in 2019, giving the Steelers an opportunity to use a top pick in a QB-rich draft, Mike Tomlin and company refused to accept a losing season. Instead, the same day the team announced Roethlisberger would undergo season-ending surgery, they traded a 2020 first-round pick for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. As a result, the Steelers found the last missing piece to complete a nearly dominant defense. However, the prime years of T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward and Fitzpatrick were mostly wasted due to subpar quarterback play.<\/p>\n
In the years since Roethlisberger\u2019s 2021 retirement, the Steelers\u2019 misses at quarterback have spanned a wide spectrum of possibilities. First, they tried the draft-and-develop approach. In 2022, even though there wasn\u2019t a quarterback with first-round talent, the Steelers spent the 20th pick on Kenny Pickett anyway. The feel-good story of the former Pitt passer playing in the same same stadium where he broke Dan Marino\u2019s records transformed into a cautionary tale. After two seasons and 24 starts, Pickett was essentially declared a bust and traded to the Eagles in a pick swap. That swing and miss scarred the Steelers, who learned that just because a team needs a quarterback doesn\u2019t mean the answer is there in the draft, making them reluctant (right or wrong) to take a similar chance again.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the team pivoted by bringing in a pair of castoff QBs in Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. A training-camp hamstring injury for Wilson gave the Steelers a chance to try the first-round reclamation project route. However, even though then-offensive coordinator Arthur Smith got the best out of Fields during a 4-2 start, the Steelers only made a half-hearted attempt to see if they could unlock Fields\u2019 first-round upside. Instead of pursuing that option more seriously, they turned the job over to Wilson.<\/p>\n
Backed by the NFL\u2019s highest-paid defense, Wilson threw enough moon balls to George Pickens to lead the Steelers to a wild-card berth. But after the season ended with five consecutive losses, including another first-round flameout in the playoffs, they realized too late it was time to move on.<\/p>\n