I’m already tired of hearing about the Steelers next QB
The corpse is still warm from the Pittsburgh Steelers 2021 season, and the NFL regular season is still far from over. Yet, we couldn’t even get through Roethlisberger’s final games without every opinionated person, from fan to media analyst, putting the Steelers quarterback six feet under and begin speculating about who is taking his place.
I’m not even suggesting that this talk will end anytime soon, but for what I’ve already seen floating around, I’m incredibly annoyed by it already.
Why does this annoy the hell out of me?
Because it’s only January… we don’t even know which quarterbacks might be available, so all of this speculation is for not.
Consider the early veteran talk. Will the Seattle Seahawks move on from Russell Wilson? Is Aaron Rodgers really on his way out of Green Bay? Derek Carr or Kirk Cousins?
I suggest that none of these teams is truly willing to part with their franchise quarterbacks.
Then, I’ve seen people recommend other quarterbacks who won’t necessarily be available. One of them, 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo, is still in the playoffs this weekend. After leading San Francisco to two NFC Championship games in five seasons, does the team move on from him? (After all, he’s still under contract with them next season for about the same cost.)
Another, Baltimore Ravens backup Tyler Huntley, has his contract under lock and key by his team for the next several seasons at a minimum. I doubt Baltimore will let him go to a division rival too.
But my most important question to those floating these names around is this: how much are you willing to give up for them? If Jimmy G or Wilson become trade bait, do you understand how much of the future must be mortgaged to acquire them?
Then there’s the question of their contracts. While Rodgers or Wilson are likely worth their commanding price atop the signal calling food chain, is Jimmy G worth paying slightly more than the Steelers were paying Ben Roethlisberger this season?
No. Not remotely, for a player who hasn’t thrown for 4,000 yards in a single season nor for more than 27 touchdowns either. (And lets just ignore his inability to play full seasons, though that would definitely factor into my decision making.)
Continuing with veteran quarterbacks, since that’s what Mike Tomlin has gone on record saying he preferred, I want to make sure I’m adamant about who I don’t want in Pittsburgh. Since Tomlin also mentioned “mobility” as being coveted in today’s quarterbacks, many are already building that bridge to some others who may be available as well.
Chief among those names Deshaun Watson, who comes with an equally trade-heavy cost to acquire him from the Houston Texans.
Watson, who is a fine young football player, has plenty of off-field baggage that could see his cost be even more expensive than a handful of draft picks, should his legal issues keep him from suiting up as it did this past season. Is he worth blowing several first round picks to acquire? What if he still doesn’t play in 2022?
That would make the Kevin Colbert critics cackle like hyenas, wouldn’t it? (And it sure wouldn’t help the Steelers get any better as a team either.)
Then there’s the love affair with everyone’s retread or failed backup. Mitchell Trubisky? Nick Foles? Marcus Mariota? Gardner Minshew? There’s a reason these players aren’t starting elsewhere, and it’s not because their second (or in the case of Foles, fifth) team misevaluated them.
Everyone wants a reclamation project, but has failed to see the one right under their nose: Washington’s former first round pick, Dwayne Haskins, who is also controlled by the Steelers with an exclusive rights deal.
I’d argue that aside from Wilson and Rodgers, none of the names mentioned thus far are a certain upgrade over Haskins… who may not be an upgrade over the Steelers other QB investment, Mason Rudolph.
Yes, Rudolph.
When I hear persons debating about which first round graded quarterback they can get in the second or third rounds, I pull the remainder of my hair out screaming that that’s precisely what Rudolph is. He’s the guy the team developed. He was the one Draft Twitter, as I like to call it, kept linking to the Steelers in the first round back in 2018.
Then the Steelers got him in the third round, and for some reason, a handful of fans who only saw a Thursday Night Football game in Cleveland back in 2019, strongly dislike him.
Draft someone else! You know, because that’s going to be guaranteed to turn out differently. (It’s not.)
Rudolph is already, at worst, the fourth-best QB taken from his draft class. Josh Rosen is barely still in the NFL. The Panthers are probably sweating their trade for Sam Darnold, who started losing ground to backup P.J. Walker for playing time, and even seeing that team go back and get their own former first rounder back in the fold, Cam Newton. (And don’t even bring him up as an option either!)
Even if the Steelers do burn a high draft selection on a quarterback, understand this: that pick isn’t going to play in 2022, unless some set of Ben Roethlisberger jumping from clipboard carrying to throwing passes happens again. Tomlin has been adamant about playing a veteran, and both Rudolph and Haskins fit that description.
Unless a can’t miss scenario guides the Steelers brass in a different direction, such as Rodgers or Wilson, fans should prepare themselves for a Rudolph versus Haskins training camp battle. No other veteran – Mariota, Foles, Minshew, or Trubisky, is a sure fire better option that the two players already in the Steelers building.
Personally, I feel moving ahead with Rudolph and Haskins is the best scenario.
If Rudolph or Haskins can’t cut it, the Steelers will end up in a better draft position than they’ve been in since finding themselves in a spot to select Ben Roethlisberger in 2004. In the meantime, they aren’t pressured to play a 2022 draft pick too early, or have that pick sit wasting away on the bench, when it could’ve been used to improve other areas of the team. (Namely the offensive line, with hopefully, a ten-year starter taken instead.)
Furthermore, if Rudolph or Haskins ends up successful, the Steelers find themselves in a better situation overall by not playing the NFL’s yearly quarterback lottery. They won’t have to burn multiple picks in trading up in the draft for “their guy” or using those picks year after year trying to avoid the next Josh Rosen.
No, those picks will actually go toward making the team better, unlike what the Browns and Jets have done for years, wasting picks on quarterbacks and never putting a supporting cast around those young players.
I know that’s going to ruffle the feathers of those who feel the draft is the way to go, but hear me out: the Steelers pick at number 20. What are you willing to risk to move up for an unproven college prospect? And will that prospect be within the Steelers reach?
Or will another team jump up the board, happy to give away their picks by mortgaging the rest of their team’s future?
I’m not convinced that the Steelers will pull such a trigger and would prefer to put other pieces in play first. That won’t stop the talk about Pitt’s Kenny Pickett, UNC’s Sam Howell, Ole Miss QB Matt Corral, Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder, or small college standout, Liberty QB Malik Willis.
That’s five quarterbacks already being discussed in the first round – or for those value hunters, surely Willis will be there at pick 52 for the Steelers, a guaranteed spot of success, right? (Precisely the same way they got Rudolph in the third round, as he was the first quarterback selected outside of the first that season, after five others were taken.)
Are you willing to pass up on the best center or a top offensive tackle for the fourth or fifth ranked quarterback?
Alas, none of what I said is going to stop the bad takes that are sure to float across my screen for the next several months. However, I may not make it to seeing the next Steelers quarterback if XM NFL Radio’s Rich Gannon happens to suggest journeyman Case Keenum as Big Ben’s successor!
Just stop it!
