Flavell's Five Thoughts: Steelers Can't Settle at QB
If you haven't heard by now, the Pittsburgh Steelers season is over after they fell to the Buffalo Bills on Monday evening. A season that started with their fate in the hands of Kenny Pickett's development ended with Mason Rudolph winning three straight games to get the Steelers into the postseason.
Injuries at critical positions eventually did the Steelers in. Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander went down at inside linebacker with season-ending injuries after General Manager Omar Khan did well to bring in better players at that position. Elandon Roberts played some inspired ball despite being less than 100% in the final quarter of the season.
Minkah Fitzpatrick got hurt and missed the final month before returning for the playoff game. T.J. Watt posted another incredible season only to be hurt in the final regular season game of the year and missed the loss to Buffalo. Unfortunately, it didn't break right for the Steelers this season.
The NFL Playoffs will trudge on without the Steelers as they'll begin the offseason without a playoff win for the seventh consecutive season. Here are some thoughts on the season and the upcoming decisions that need to be made.
Don't Settle for Rudolph/Pickett
Mitch Trubisky likely played his final game in Pittsburgh. He probably won't factor into next season's quarterback equation at all. Kenny Pickett has two more guaranteed years before a decision needs to be made on his fifth-year option. Mason Rudolph is an impending free agent.
Dumping Trubisky and giving a chunk of that money to Rudolph seems to make sense for the organization. Rudolph is likely going to want a fair shot at being the team's starter next year and isn't going to play for pennies after proving he can be a capable NFL quarterback.
Pickett entered the postseason still listed as QB1 on the depth chart despite sitting in favor of Rudolph for a do-or-die game in Orchard Park. He is the team's 2022 first-round draft pick. They likely aren't going to cast him aside for nothing and want to see him in an offense without Matt Canada calling the plays.
With all of this being said, entering Training Camp 2024, a Rudolph/Pickett competition, is not what is best for the Steelers. With Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, C.J. Stroud, and a handful of other top-tier quarterbacks spending their days in the AFC, neither Rudolph nor Pickett push the Steelers over the top. Finding an actual franchise QB is easier said than done, but having a mid-off between the two seems like a rather damning idea for a team that might be a real quarterback away from being, at the very least, a contender in the AFC.
Talent-Wise, The Team Isn't Far Off
Maybe the quarterback situation isn't ideal. Quarterback play is king and will eventually weed out the contenders and pretenders, but I don't think it's off base to say that the Steelers have a lot of the roster construction right now.
The running game thrived when Mike Tomlin began splitting carries between Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. George Pickens and Diontae Johnson are both talented wideouts and could thrive even further if they find a good third complement. Pat Freiermuth can be a weapon when used correctly. Outside of Mason Cole, the offensive line played really well and might have a foundational piece in Broderick Jones.
Most of the Steelers' salary cap is tied up on defense, and for good reason. Cam Heyward, Alex Highsmith, Watt, and Fitzpatrick all earned long-term deals over the past few seasons. They are all high-level players. Joey Porter Jr. and Keanu Benton played pivotal roles in their rookie seasons, a big development for a team that typically brings along their rookies in a slower manner. Inside linebacker would've been a much more productive position had the aforementioned injury bug not ravished them.
Finding more help at cornerback and on the interior defensive line should again be priorities, but the Steelers' defense is pretty well stocked at the moment. If anything, finding a new punter should also be a priority this season, with Pressley Harvin not being able to flip the field often enough.
I'm not going out and saying that this team is a quarterback away from playing deep into the postseason, but a solid foundation is there. I think it is fair to say that if Aaron Rodgers, Joe Burrow, and Anthony Richardson hadn't gotten hurt, the Steelers might have been on the outside of the AFC playoff race looking in for most of the season.
Hopefully, year three of Pickett will be the season Steelers fans expected this season unless they do something to address the position from the outside.
Tomlin Returning is Fine, But He Can't Hire New OC
Despite walking off the podium while being asked about his future, reports are that Tomlin will return as the Steelers' coach for an 18th season. This is the first time it truly felt like Tomlin may not be back to coach the Steelers; however, those rumors can now be all but squashed.
If the Steelers want to have Tomlin back again next season, that is fine. But just like they did when they forced Todd Haley upon him, the higher-ups in the organization need to make the next offensive coordinator hire.
Bobby Slowik is going to find himself a head coaching job after his work with the Texans' offense this season. Even though the Eagles' offense sputtered down the stretch, Brian Johnson likely will find himself a job in this head coaching cycle as well. The one thing they have in common: Both are 36-years old.
Tomlin was 34 when the Steelers hired him. Russ Grimm seemingly had the job locked up to replace Bill Cowher when Tomlin came in and wowed everyone with his vision and his gift of gab. Alas, 18 years later, he's still around.
The offensive coordinator hire needs to be a young mind. Whether it be from the Shanahan School of Coaching or another young mind, Khan or even Art Rooney need to be entrusted with finding a guy who could bring new ideas to the Steelers' on-field operation and potentially be the guy that takes over for Tomlin down the road. More than ever, it feels like Tomlin's career is winding down.
Overall, it can't be Tomlin hiring another retread like Randy Fichtner or Matt Canada. Let someone else make that decision.
Missed Opportunities Doomed Steelers
Entering the week 13 matchup with the two-win Arizona Cardinals, the Steelers' record sat at 7-4. It felt like a colossal collapse would be needed to miss the playoffs. Pickett, playing better following the dismissal of Canada, got hurt and things took an ugly turn.
Trubisky came into that game and couldn't get the Steelers back into it. He subsequently looked like a CFL quarterback in the Thursday Night Football game against the two-win Patriots, and suddenly, the Steelers were 7-6 with Indianapolis on the docket.
A lifeless performance at Lucas Oil Stadium saw the end of Trubisky's reign at quarterback. For Tomlin to even play him after the consecutive duds against the NFL's bottom-feeder teams was a near-fireable offense. Rudolph came in, saved them, and pushed them into the playoffs.
Trap games happen. Every above-average team loses one throughout the year. Any given Sunday is the motto of the NFL. However, both games were at home, and both were still against really poor football teams. Even the Indianapolis game against a backup quarterback was a winnable game.
Theoretically, let's say the Steelers win even two of those three games and the rest of the schedule plays out the same way, they are 12-5 and likely can rest some guys in week 18. Watt likely doesn't play and, while Baltimore still wins the division, you're playing in a road playoff game but have Watt available. We all are aware of the Steelers' 1-11 record without him since he was drafted.
Hindsight is obviously 20/20 but to think how differently things could've went with Watt in the lineup is certainly a fun exercise. Now, Watt has all the time he needs to recover as his team will be watching the remainder of the playoffs from their couches.
Predicting Steelers' Biggest Splash of Offseason
We know the Steelers will select 20th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. You'd have to think, based on who is available and where they pick, a center or interior defensive lineman will be the pick. If they do feel like moving on from Pickett, they'd likely have to move up a bit in the draft order to acquire a quarterback that they like. So I'll refrain from predicting that.
I'll surmise that they take an offensive lineman of some sort. Maybe they will go with another Georgia tackle in the first round with Amarius Mims, or a guy like JC Latham will fall into their lap. Troy Fautanu might even be a possibility where they pick. I see them leaning even further into the offensive line's foundation to set them up to run the ball next season.
My actual splash prediction is that they'll sign cornerback Jaylon Johnson to a deal in free agency. The 24-year-old cornerback could still be franchise-tagged by the Bears, but for the sake of this exercise, I'm going to pretend he isn't, and Khan and Co. sign him to a lucrative deal.
Johnson was on the trade block and the Steelers reportedly made a push to acquire him before the trade deadline. While the deal didn't come to fruition, the Steelers clearly need another cornerback opposite of Porter Jr.
Patrick Peterson probably isn't the answer to that anymore and Levi Wallace is an impending free agent that got better over the course of the season but probably isn't a long-term piece.
Drafting a cornerback is an option, too, and the Steelers took Corey Trice late in this past season's draft before he got hurt in the preseason. However, Johnson would give the Steelers one of the bonafide cornerback duos in the NFL currently and further bolster an already talented defense.
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