Playoff wins will measure Steelers’ new slate of QBs
The playoff-starved Steelers haven’t totally overhauled their quarterbacks in 66 years. They’re seeking quicker returns this time. The Pittsburgh Steelers have undergone a significant offensive overhaul, with the team's last clean sweep of their poor passers being in 1957. This comes after GM Omar Khan brought in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, who will cost the team an estimated $4.4 million in 2024. The team, which hasn't won a playoff game in seven seasons, is seeking a quicker return on their quarterback change over this time around. Khan expressed full faith in former first-round pick Kenny Pickett, who was traded for a trade when the trade value for Bears passer Justin Fields dropped. The final Pittsburgh passer from 2023, Mason Rudolph, was allowed to walk for the paltry price of a one-year deal at $2.87 million. The question is whether this overhaul will be seen as a mere footnote or the beginning of a rich new Steelers' chapter of excellence.
Published : a month ago by John Luciew | [email protected], jluciew, John Luciew in Sports
It’s been a history-making offensive overhaul for the playoff-starved Steelers.
Not since 1957 has there been this kind of carnage in the quarterbacks’ room. That’s when the Steelers last made a clean sweep of their poor passers from the season before.
Shown the door in 1957 were Ted Marchibroda and Jack Scarbath. Ushered in to lift those “Loveable Losers” to new heights of passing were Earl Morrall, Len Dawson and Jack Kemp.
It should have worked out, given those now-gaudy names Pittsburgh brought in. Yet it would take the Steelers another 13 seasons to get it right by drafting Terry Bradshaw with the No. 1 pick in 1970. Only then would the football franchise born in 1933 produce its first playoff win two years later.
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Clearly, the 2024 Steelers, who haven’t won a playoff game in seven seasons, are seeking a far quicker return on their quarterback change over this time around.
Architect of the overhaul, second-year GM Omar Khan, told the gathered press at the annual NFL meetings in Orlando this week that the suddenness and completeness of the quarterback overhaul came as a shock even to him.
“Am I surprised?” asked Khan, who recently professed “full faith” in former first-round pick Kenny Pickett, entering his third season.
“If you’d have told me a month ago when we spoke in Indy that a month later Russell Wilson and Justin Fields would be our quarterbacks … I’d say, yeah, I’d be a little bit surprised. Yeah,” he said.
After Khan brought in Broncos cast-off Russell Wilson, Pickett signaled his desire for a trade – a “change of scenery” as coach Mike Tomlin put it.
The Pitt product became expendable when the trade value for Bears passer Justin Fields plunged.
“Obviously some things transpired,” Khan continued. “Things changed from when we were in Indy (for the NFL Combine) to here; some things happened and probably didn’t anticipate the way things would go.”
The final Pittsburgh passer from 2023 – Mason Rudolph, fresh from rallying his team to the playoffs – was allowed to walk for the paltry price of a one-year deal at $2.87 million. He’s now a Titan.
Meanwhile, Khan and the Steelers rounded out their QB room with journeyman Kyle Allen, a seven-year vet joining his fifth NFL team. He spent last season in Buffalo but saw his most action in 2019 with the Carolina Panthers. He’s 7-12 in 19 career starts.
“We feel good where the room is,” Khan proclaimed. “We feel good about 2024 with the quarterbacks we have.”
With that, Steelers’ history was made.
The sweeping QB changes came at bargain-basement prices, too. Combined, Wilson and Fields will cost the Steelers an eye-poppingly low $4.4 million in 2024.
The far bigger question is whether the wholesale overhaul at quarterback ranks as a mere footnote – or the beginning of a rich new Steelers’ chapter of excellence.
The plan for the new Pittsburgh passers, as outlined by Tomlin, is to hand the ball to Wilson, allowing the one-time Super Bowl QB to pursue destiny.
Said Tomlin: “The most attractive component of (Wilson’s) profile to me is his quest for greatness. His chase for legacy. This is not a guy who is hungry, meaning that can be satisfied. This is a guy that’s driven. And you want to work with people of that mindset.”
Tomlin clearly sees something in Wilson the Broncos didn’t. Why else would the latter pay Russell $38 million just to go away?
Tomlin acknowledged these issues, hinting that perhaps even the Steelers don’t know what Wilson has left in the tank.
“He’s got a lot of work to do,” Tomlin said. “Obviously, he’s had some professional challenges, particularly in recent years, and he appears to be a guy that wants to meet those challenges head-on and continue to move forward with his career. And that was attractive.”
Attractive? Maybe. A sure thing? Definitely not.
This has led to speculation in the national NFL media that it will be the Steelers’ second QB, Justin Fields, who leads in the team in 2024 – not Wilson.
Yet, the question marks only multiply when it comes to the Chicago cast-off. The Bears, who hold the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft, could only watch as Fields’ trade value – once expected to be lofty – plunged to a paltry sixth-round conditional pick.
Clearly, other teams saw glaring flaws in the turnover-prone QB’s game as he enters his fourth NFL season.
These defensively minded Steelers aren’t built for a QB who’s careless with the football. Thus, the plan for Fields in Pittsburgh is to watch and learn.
Fields finds himself in precisely the position Pickett would have been after the Steelers’ signed Wilson. Pickett balked and now resides in Philly. Fields is reportedly eager to accumulate Wilson’s wisdom.
Said Tomlin: “Just from my conversations with Justin, I know he is excited about working alongside Russell and maybe learning some of those veteran tricks of the trade and things that (Wilson) picked up from being in this league for over a decade.”
For the Steelers’ clean sweep at quarterback to really make history, they need to have Fields rise beyond his chaotic, turnover-filled tenure in the Windy City and fulfill the pedigree and potential he held coming out of Ohio State.
Tomlin, in words unique to the loquacious coach, said he sees plenty of “meat left on that bone” when it comes to Fields.
“Oh my gosh, he oozes talent and potential. He’s worn the responsibility of being a franchise quarterback, but still he gets the opportunity to come into a community-like situation and learn from a guy who has been doing it for over a decade,” Tomlin gushed about Fields.
Tomlin then promised this: “Justin will be given an opportunity to compete.”
The only question is the timing. Tomlin refused to be pinned down.
Change has come quickly to the Steelers.
But all the fallout of Pittsburgh’s clean sweep at quarterback will take far longer to play out. Ultimate success of this bold experiment will be playoff wins, which have become so frustratingly elusive in Pittsburgh.
History’s judgment awaits. But it cannot – will not -- be rushed.
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John Luciew is an award-winning reporter for PennLive and a 30-year Steelers season ticket-holder. His column and podcast are presented from the obsessively over-informed perspective of an avid Steelers’ fan. Check out his latest Steelers podcast every Wednesday afternoon wherever podcasts are found.
Topics: Football, NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers