Winning in the NFL is pretty simple when you boil it down. The quickest, and easiest way to win is to have a franchise quarterback. Obtaining that player is the tricky part. Knowing when you do not have that player can be equally as tricky. The Pittsburgh Steelers have not been unable to do either for quite some time now. Their evaluation process at the quarterback position over the last decade has been less than stellar to say the least. Let’s look back at what has transpired at this position over the last few seasons:
The practice round:
Hard to knock the Steelers brass for the selection of Josh Dobbs in 2017. We were still in prime Ben Roehtlisberger at this point, and it felt like the team was drafting for an inexpensive backup more than a future starter. They were following the model of the Landry Jones draft pick in 2013 here. This time however it did not work out as well. Dobbs would get no meaningful snaps, and would be cut just two years later.
The first real attempt:
Mason Rudolph was drafted the very next season accompanied with the now infamous “first round grade” quote by then general manager Kevin Colbert. This selection was strange for several reasons. Putting aside the fact that they had taken a quarterback the prior draft, they still had Ben Roethlisberger who was coming off a 4,000 yard/28 touchdown season. What exactly were the Steelers trying to accomplish here by wasting a 3rd round pick on a player where the best case scenario would be him never seeing the feild?
Selecting at quarterback in back to back seasons while your starter is still in his prime is strange to say the least. Did some in the organization see cracks in Roethlisberger’s game? It’s hard to imagine that being the case. Did they really believe Mason Rudolph was just too good to pass up? That’s an even more damaging theory.
The 2019 disaster:
The 2019 season brought us evidence of two massive misevaluations at the quarterback position for the Steelers. First off we got a first hand look at who Mason Rudolph was after the season ending injury to Roehtlisberger. Rudolph struggled through poor play and injuries all season. He could not hold off undrafted free agent Duck Hodges for the starters job by season’s end. One thing was certain, this was not the heir apparent for this franchise.
The next, and even larger misevaluation would hobble this franchise for years to come at the quarterback position. The Steelers decided that they would be fine going forward with a 37 year old quarterback coming off a season ending injury. So much so, they traded their first round pick to acquire Minkah Fitzpatrick. This despite being 0-2 at the time, and missing their starting quarterback for the season.
Pittsburgh got what they wanted with this trade, Fitzpatrick filled a glaring need, and turned that defense from average to elite. It saved a potentially disastrous season in the short term, but it prohibited them from bottoming out. No first round pick meant no chance at drafting the next franchise quarterback like say….JUSTIN HERBERT. We go into greater detail on this trade and its affects here:Five reasons why the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade is a disaster
The aftermath:
The next two seasons were a succession of mistakes based on one flawed evaluation. The Pittsburgh Steelers believed they could squeeze one more Super Bowl run out of the aging Ben Roehtlisberger. At least some did. Roehtlisberger himself was quoted as saying Kevin Colbert wanted to move on a season sooner.
Sticking with Roehtlisberger led to short cuts, and bad draft decisions that only further hurt the franchise. Trying to patchwork an offensive line together instead of building a young one for the future, and drafting a running back in the first round to fast track a run game were just a few of the ill advised moves done to prop up their past his prime quarterback. The team made the playoffs in his final season, but that resulted in a blowout loss and a first round exit.
The Kenny Pickett era:
As luck would have it, Ben Roehtlisberger’s retirement would lead into the worst quarterback draft in the last ten years. Undeterred, the Steelers selected Kenny Pickett at pick 20 of the first round. Twenty four starts later they have a quarterback who has averaged 180 yards passing, and about half a touchdown per game. The jury may be out on whether or not Pickett can be a serviceable quarterback in this league, but we can put to bed any hope of an elite franchise player here.
What makes matters worse is the team had signed what they thought at the time was a viable starter in Mitch Trubisky before the draft. (As it turned out that too was a terrible evaluation at the quarterback position, but they didn’t know that at the time). The team could have easily waited, and bolstered another position on the roster.
So here we are left to debate whether the team should start Kenny Pickett, or Mason Rudolph in a game with a playoff spot hanging in the balance. The fact that this is even a debate tells you all you need to know about the state of quarterbacking in Pittsburgh.
How long it takes them to move on from Kenny Pickett is anyone’s guess. The Steelers do have a new front office now. One that wasn’t around for the Pickett selection. One can only hope this regime is far better at evaluating quarterbacks than its predecessor. If not we could be in for a long, mediocre run for the Pittsburgh Steelers.