Last month, the Steelers’ quarterbacks room was completely overhauled, with every quarterback who had previously been on the roster leaving Pittsburgh and every passer who is currently on the roster not having been a Steeler last season. While it appears that Pittsburgh made the best of a terrible circumstance, Brooke Pryor of ESPN believes that things could have gone very differently.
The awful issue mentioned above was the quarterback situation just after last season. Mitchell Trubisky and Kenny Pickett, former first-round quarterbacks, were failing to live up to their draft stock, and their only hope was to ride with the hot-handed Mason Rudolph, a player they had never trusted in the past and who was about to hit free agency.
The revamp began with the departure of Trubisky, who returned to Buffalo as Josh Allen’s backup. Then, everything really hit the fan.Pittsburgh signed Super Bowl-winning quarterback Russell Wilson, who will most likely replace Pickett as the starter, despite assurances that he will compete for the job. Rudolph decided not to sign with the Titans after losing his chances at a starting spot. And, with the writing on the wall, Pickett requested a trade, which the Steelers granted by moving him to Philadelphia to back up Jalen Hurts. Finally, the Steelers completed their roster by trading for Justin Fields, the former polarising Bears quarterback, and signing veteran backup quarterback Kyle Allen.
They transformed a room with a low floor and an unclear ceiling into one with demonstrated experience and future possibilities without devoting too many money to its acquisition. Before deciding on Wilson as their best option moving forward, the team considered a few other options.After recruiting former Falcons head coach Arthur Smith as their new offensive coordinator, Pittsburgh felt confident in Pickett managing a run-heavy, play-action offence. Smith had already led a successful version of the offence in Tennessee, alongside Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry. The organisation even considered reuniting Tannehill and Smith, with the veteran quarterback entering free agency this year. They also looked into new Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins before concluding he was too expensive.
