Steelers’ quarterback of the future isn’t Sam Darnold

Pittsburgh Steelers fans who believe Sam Darnold is their beloved franchise’s quarterbacking heir apparent are so wrong.

If Pittsburgh Steelers fans want a bright quarterbacking future after Ben Roethlisberger finally hangs up the spikes, they need to stop getting hung up on Sam Darnold coming to the Steel City.

There was a time when Darnold was the can’t-miss quarterback prospect in his draft class coming out of USC. However, his last three years with the flightless New York Jets have been a lot of throwing picks across one’s body, contracting mononucleosis, seeing ghosts and being little more than AFC East cannon fodder to the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots.

Though Darnold is cut from the same quarterbacking cloth as Big Ben, the Steelers are better off signing Jameis Winston as a free agent in 2022 than trading for the struggling Jets quarterback. At least with Winston you know that he can play at a Pro Bowl level and throw for a ton of yards on a halfway decent team. Better yet, the Steelers need to look for Big Ben’s replacement in the draft.

The Pittsburgh Steelers must replace Ben Roethlisberger through the NFL Draft

Though the 2021 NFL Draft is chock-full of promising quarterback prospects, the Steelers may not have a chance to draft any of the top five, as they are picking at No. 24 overall. One player who could have been available to them at No. 24 was former Alabama standout Mac Jones, but the Davey O’Brien winner has been soaring of late and may go as high as No. 3 to San Francisco.

So unless the Jones hype isn’t real, Justin Fields’ draft stock continues to plummet or people just aren’t that high on Trey Lance coming out of FCS North Dakota State, the best the Steelers can do around where they are picking is over-drafting Kyle Trask out of Florida. While he could be a good pro, Trask is not close to being an NFL starter and he will need to be coached up for a year or so.

Ultimately, the Steelers will need to either trade up near the top-10, bet their lucky stars on Trask or perhaps wait for the next crop of talent to enter the draft in 2022. College standouts such as Sam Howell of North Carolina, Kedon Slovis of USC, Desmond Ridder of Cincinnati, Spencer Rattler of Oklahoma or JT Daniels of Georgia could be ready to strut their stuff in the first round next year.

The Steelers must recognize that Big Ben’s heir apparent is still probably playing college football.