Tim Benz: Steelers fans likely to be disappointed with team’s QB situation next season

Most Pittsburgh Steelers fans want to see a significant shakeup at quarterback. And most of them are going to wind up upset.

That’s my read after an informal web poll I conducted on social media.

These are basically the four choices the Steelers have when it comes to what they can do at the quarterback position in 2024.

1. Actively try to acquire an established veteran starter from another team via trade or free agency. The names I included as potential feasible candidates were Baker Mayfield, Kirk Cousins and Justin Fields. I suggested throwing Russell Wilson into that mix as well in a separate sub-post.

That led the way with 38.4% of the vote.

2. Draft a quarterback in the first three rounds in April. That got 19.7% of the vote.

3. Have a legitimate, open competition between Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph (assuming Rudolph is retained in free agency). That finished second, getting 26.4% of the vote.

4. If Rudolph isn’t retained in free agency, have Pickett “battle” for his starting job with a new veteran quarterback who has been an NFL backup in the past. In other words, a Jacoby Brissett, Case Keenum or Josh Dobbs type or journeyman.

That option finished last with 15.5% of the vote.

I’m with the voting majority. If Cousins would come on a short deal, I’d get him. Fields probably has more upside than Pickett, and Baker has more moments of NFL success than Rudolph.

Yet, my hunch is that the Steelers would be more inclined to stay with at least one of the two birds they have in the hand, instead of one in the bush. Especially given what it may take to acquire that bird out of the bush in terms of trade assets or raw dollars.

Regardless of whether Rudolph walks away or not, the Steelers could spend a second- or third-round pick on a quarterback. If Pickett bombs, it would be a legitimate option to replace him in 2024 with a Day 1 or Day 2 QB. But that would strike me as a move for 2025 as much as it would be for this coming year.

CBS Sports ranks eight quarterbacks as top-3 round prospects. Five of them (USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Washington’s Michale Penix and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy) are projected first-rounders.

Oregon’s Bo Nix, Tulane’s Michale Pratt and South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler are Round 2 and 3 prospects. I could see one of those three guys (or Florida State’s Jordan Travis) picked by the Steelers as a developmental project behind Pickett and Rudolph this year (a potential starter in 2025) if Pickett can’t get it together. That potential draftee could also be in the mix as Pickett’s backup if Rudolph leaves.

Suppose the Steelers were to draft a first-round quarterback. That strikes me more as an attempt to move Pickett to the bench than spur him on with competition. I’m skeptical of that, given that the Steelers just spent such a high pick on Pickett two years ago. In this hypothetical, they wouldn’t have even bothered seeing him through three years. Also, they are starving for other needs in the draft at receiver, secondary, inside linebacker and on both lines of scrimmage.

Frankly, the scenario that got the least amount of support is the one that is most likely to happen, in my opinion. That’s Pickett coming in as the starter with a new backup after Rudolph moves on in free agency.

After all, coach Mike Tomlin is on record from his season-ending press conference as saying he believes that his 2024 starter is on the roster right now. Pickett will be. Plus, he has also stated that Pickett is resuming his “QB1 status” this offseason.

Rudolph is also on the roster right now but may not be once free agency hits. And Tomlin is also on record as acknowledging that keeping Rudolph is not a lock, even though the team wants to do so.

“He is a free agent, and it is free agency,” Tomlin said. “So, we’ll see where that leads us.”

Or, more to the point, where that leads Rudolph — like maybe to Tampa, Minnesota, New England, Chicago or Atlanta, depending on what happens with QB situations in those places.

That brings us to the fourth choice — Pickett with “new journeyman TBA backup veteran.” I can’t believe it even got 15% of the vote.

My hunch is that those who voted for that category are Pitt Panthers fans who just want to see the least amount of hurdles in Pickett’s way to success. Or they are simply Pickett truthers who are 100% convinced that fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada was the only problem, and Pickett would’ve been every bit as good with Canada gone as Rudolph was.

Underwhelming as that fourth option may sound, I bet that’s what the Steelers do — unless they surprisingly outbid someone for Rudolph, or he takes a sweet hometown discount.

If I’m Rudolph, I wouldn’t. But maybe he thinks a competition with Pickett under a new coordinator in Pittsburgh is his cleanest path to more playing time.

The overall point, though, is that 58.1% of respondents wanted new blood in the pocket in some form — either with a new starting-capable veteran or a draft choice.

That leads me to believe that the majority of those Steelers fans are going to wind up disappointed.