The Steelers didn’t let QB desperation get the best of them in the draft

Sports

add

It’s no secret that the Pittsburgh Steelers still have a need at quarterback. But with the team still feeling the effects of their gamble on Kenny Pickett in the 2022 Draft, they ensured lightning wouldn’t strike twice.

All signs point to the Steelers working out a deal with Aaron Rodgers, a more stable option than handing the keys to the franchise over to a rookie who may not be a needle-mover.

On the latest episode of “The Athletic Football Show,” Robert Mays was joined by ESPN’s Field Yates to discuss why the Steelers were wise to avoid getting caught up in quarterback desperation in this year’s draft. Watch the full discussion below.

A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in “The Athletic Football Show” feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Robert: Let’s stick with some AFC teams still looking to break through, and we’ll start with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The message they sent is: “This time, quarterback desperation is only going to push us so far.” And that was the interesting wrinkle to the Steelers’ quarterback question heading into this draft. We’re only a couple of years removed from them needing a quarterback in a draft class where there weren’t any obvious quarterbacks. They made the play for Kenny Pickett at 20, and they’re still paying for it. I was wondering coming into this, is (Steelers GM) Omar Khan going to sit there and say, “Why are we going to do this again? Why are we going to take a shot on a guy who’s probably not worth it in this range of the draft, just because we have to? Isn’t it easier to trade whatever mid-round pick we’d have to for Kirk Cousins? Or sign Aaron Rodgers to whatever moderate deal we’re going to? And then if we want to take a swing next year, we can?”

I always thought that made the most sense as far as this class was concerned, and that’s what they told us. They didn’t draft a quarterback until the sixth round, and I’m sure Steelers fans are feeling a little bit itchy and uneasy based on the missing spot on their depth chart right now. If you look at it, it’s Mason Rudolph and not much else. But I’m not surprised that the Steelers weren’t willing to overextend themselves again because they’re still dealing with the fall of the last time a draft looked like this, and they felt the need to pull the trigger.

Field: My colleague Matt Miller noted something to this effect on X. Forgive me Matt if I’m a little bit off on the exact point you were trying to make, but I think we’ve learned something in the past couple of drafts; clear and obvious starters will go very high at quarterback, but not clear and obvious starters better buckle up for a long wait. You look at the gap once again. In the first 40 picks, we had three quarterbacks taken, with Tyler Shough being the third and then we had Jalen Milroe late in the third round. Milroe might be like the lone exception to the statement that Matt made, but he fits into that category of still being a mid-round pick because he’s an extremely unique athlete who’s still a long way away as a quarterback. Shedeur Sanders had to wait until 144… in case anyone missed that. Will Howard went in the sixth round, and Quinn Ewers went in the seventh round.

I started to sense some agony and angst from Steelers fans in the middle rounds, who were thinking, “What are we doing here?” But if the team wasn’t bullish enough on the player to take them at 21, and then not again at 83, you should just wait, and they did so until the sixth round. We’re just one Schefter tweet away from this becoming reality, but all the signs tell us that Aaron Rodgers, despite the peculiar path he’s taken to eventually land this deal in Pittsburgh, feels borderline all but done. Maybe I’ll rue saying this. But if it does happen, as much as I think the Steelers’ ceiling is still lower than it needs to be to satisfy the fan base, I think the Aaron Rodgers plus Derrick Harmon, with no other burned draft capital, is a better path than forcing the issue with a Jaxson Dart at 21 or Shedeur Sanders at some point later in the draft. Instead, they said, “We’re not going to go right back down the Kenny Pickett path again.”

Robert: The Jaxson Dart path is the Kenny Pickett path, even if they’re different players. Because in terms of what you’re trying to do, it’s overdrafting a guy where you’re having to squint a little bit at that point in the draft, which is a very similar outcome. You and I both started doing this around the same time. The 2012 season was my first year covering the league full-time, now we’re around 13 years in. How many quarterbacks picked outside of the top two rounds have become long-term starters in the NFL since 2012, when you started doing this? You can probably count them on one hand.

Field: Yeah, exactly. You have Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott, and Brock Purdy would be one now. But it’s a very small number. Russell Wilson too, but it is a short list.

Robert: Right, it doesn’t really happen. So this idea of, “We have to try to get a quarterback,” it’s likely not going to be something fruitful at the end of the road for you. You’re probably going to find a guy who, at best, is going to be a long-term backup. Every once in a while, it happens. But even the guys who have been successful, like Dak for example, he stepped into a phenomenal situation in Dallas when he started. That was the best offensive line and running game in football, so he was allowed to come along at a really good pace. Russell Wilson was in the exact same situation in Seattle. And Brock Purdy got dropped into the Death Star in his first year as a starter.

These situations, where even these guys succeed, are very specific. I know if you’re a team without a clear path at starting quarterback, you want your team to take a chance on a guy. But that’s why you can wait. After the third round, it doesn’t really matter anymore when you take this guy because the hit rate is probably going to be the same. You might as well try to find defensive-line depth like the Steelers did, a little bit later in the draft. It is tough, but history tells you you’re probably not going to find one of those guys outside of the first round, let alone outside of the top two rounds.

You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic Football Show for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.

(Photo of Omar Khan: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Cruzeiro conversa com staff do atacante Dudu para redução da multa rescisória

Futebol

Next

trending_flat

Former Florida State QB Jordan Travis medically retires due to 2023 leg injury suffered with Seminoles

Sports