If Russell Wilson ever leaves the Seahawks, it’ll be for 1 of these 5 teams

4. Pittsburgh Steelers

Ben Roethlisberger is 38 years old and coming off a serious elbow injury. Retirement has been on his mind in recent years, so sometime in the next couple of years, he might call it a career. He is under contract through 2021.

Roethlisberger’s absence for 14 games last year showed the Steelers don’t have anything resembling a successor in place right now. Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges are not future NFL starters, let alone with any real potential to be on the level Roethlisberger has been at his best.

Terry Bradshaw played just one game in 1983, his final season, and he played nine games the season before that. Between that point and Roethlisberger stepping in as a rookie in 2005, the Steelers had a long run of quarterbacks who were mostly not memorable and were certainly not franchise signal-callers. Bubby Brister was memorable for his name more than anything, and a pop-up Super Bowl appearance with Neil O’Donnell as the quarterback was just that. Kordell Stewart had some moments, but he was a multi-faceted weapon more than a quarterback.

The Steelers are one of the most stable and well-run organizations in the NFL if not all pro sports. Drafting someone who can be seen as Roethlisberger’s successor in 2021 seems likely, and it actually should be a certainty all things considered.

That said, the opportunity to trade for Wilson might be out there eventually. No team with any sort of question at quarterback beyond the next couple years should turn away from the idea, and the Steelers fit that particular bill better than a lot of teams.