Pittsburgh Steelers’ QB situation could be ugly in 2022
The Pittsburgh Steelers need a starting quarterback for the first time since 2004, and it’s not going to be an easy fix for them.
Ben Roethlisberger is walking off into retirement. He leaves a massive opening at quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
After 18 years in the arena, it’s widely believed Roethlisberger played his final NFL game on Sunday night in a 42-21 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. If that’s so, the Steelers now have to move forward with a quarterback room comprised of Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins. With due respect to both, neither is the short or long-term plan for Pittsburgh.
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With that in mind, what’s next? On Tuesday, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spoke with the media and addressed the situation. Per ESPN:
“All options are on the table. I enjoy working with [general manager] Kevin [Colbert] this time of year because we speak plain English. We have to improve our football team. There’s two major ways you do it. You do it to free agency, and you do it through the draft. We have to look at what’s available to us in the draft positionally. And we have to look at what’s available to us, potentially, in free agency, positionally, and then we kind of bring those two discussions together. And it kind of gives us a path in which to go about addressing our needs.”
For Pittsburgh, there’s good and bad news.
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The good is the Steelers have their draft picks and more than $41 million in projected cap space. Should Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson or Russell Wilson become available in a trade, Pittsburgh would have the financial flexibility and all its picks to at least be in the mix.
The bad news is the Steelers don’t have multiple first-rounders like the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles, or even the Miami Dolphins who have a pair of firsts in 2023. Those teams all need quarterbacks (potentially, anyway) and have more ammo to get one. Additionally, this draft isn’t stocked with high-end talent at quarterback, although there are some interesting prospects in Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, Ole Miss’ Matt Corral and Liberty’s Malik Willis among others.
For the Steelers, it’s impossible to move forward without figuring out the league’s most-important position. Duding how things appear, it won’t be easy for them to do so.
