It’s 2026. If you want an offense that will be competitive in the postseason, you don’t want Aaron Rodgers throwing a football for you. Unfortunately, that’s the world the Pittsburgh Steelers are living in.
Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Pittsburgh Steelers face a critical offseason after six years of quarterback instability under Mike Tomlin's long era.
- Mike McCarthy's arrival brings new challenges as the team must decide whether to commit to an Aaron Rodgers.
- The franchise's path forward hinges on acquiring a young, cost-effective signal-caller before market options diminish post-draft.
They’ve been in quarterback hell since 2020, and the few things they’ve tried to do to get out have been failing spectacularly. Now they’re in another offseason where they’re waiting to see if the 42-year-old is going to be their quarterback again.
It doesn’t have to be that way, and if you’re a Steelers fan, you have to hope that the front office and coaching staff understand that. Luckily, I’m here with a simple three-step guide to help the Steelers undeservedly get out of the hole they needlessly dove headfirst into.
Step 1: Acknowledgement
“We’ve only done bad things at quarterback for the past six seasons.”
If the Steelers are going to get out of this hole that they’re in, they need to acknowledge that they’re in a hole. Luckily, this is the perfect time for them to do that.
The Mike Tomlin era of Steelers football is over. It’s been 19 years since they’ve had a new head coach. If you’re changing things up on that massive of a scale, why not make your moves?
Now, they did hire Mike McCarthy as their new head coach, which puts a couple of wrinkles in all of this. The first is that he’s an Aaron Rodgers guy, and he’s going to be totally fine, maybe even downright happy, if Rodgers is his quarterback in 2026.
The other wrinkle is that he’s not a long-term coach. Chuck Noll was 37 when Pittsburgh hired him in 1969, Bill Cowher was 34 years old when he got hired in 1992, and Mike Tomlin was 35 when he got hired in 2007. McCarthy is 62 years old. He doesn’t have 15 years of coaching left in him.
At a base level, it looks like Pittsburgh’s plan is to have McCarthy be the guy for a few years and then pivot to some young hotshot … But those few years are still years, and that’s a franchise that’s not in the business of completely wasting time.
They need to realize that their recent track record of bad quarterback drafts, cheap guys, and old guys isn’t going to work.
First, they tried Mason Rudolph, but he wasn’t the guy. Then they ignored the problem until Ben Roethlisberger retired. That was a bad idea. They drafted Kenny Pickett late in the first round of the 2022 draft, but that was terrible. Then they went to Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, but they didn’t vibe. Then, last year, they went to Aaron Rodgers, and that mostly stunk.
If they’re going to get to a spot where they can win their first postseason game in 10 years, they need to admit to the error of their ways: they need to get young and good. The problem is that we won’t know if they do step one until they do step two.
Step 2: Change
“Hey, Aaron. Kick rocks, pal.”
To put it plainly, decommit from Aaron Rodgers. Sure, it’s scary to think about not having a quarterback, especially one who is a future Hall-of-Famer, but they need to stop playing by his rules and play by their own.
They still have Will Howard, which is just a tiny little bit less scary than not having a quarterback, but he does exist, and he’s still there. However, because they’re not trying (or at least it looks like they’re not trying) to move forward without getting Rodgers’ blessing, they’ve missed out on a decent-ish crop of quarterbacks.
Malik Willis signed with the Dolphins, Kyler Murray signed with the Vikings, Geno Smith got traded back to the Jets, Daniel Jones re-signed with the Colts, and Tua Tagovailoa signed with the Falcons. If any of those guys have a good season, it’d be better than what you’ll probably end up getting from Aaron Rodgers… and as a bonus, you’d be able to move on with your offseason and your future.
The sooner they can eliminate Rodgers from the future of the franchise, the better. You know that the second Omar Khan (the Steelers’ general manager) calls Rodgers’ agent and says, ‘Yeah, we’re done with your guy,’ it’s going to be made public so that Rodgers can try to leech himself onto another team.
Step 3: Trade
“Someone help. I’ll make it worth your while.”
Trades for starting-caliber quarterbacks are only getting more and more expensive every passing day, and that price is going to get bumped up big-time after the draft. So if the Steelers are going to move forward and trade for someone, they need to do it like, right now.
The best option for them is to trade for Tanner McKee, Jalen Hurts’ backup in Philadelphia.
He started the Eagles' Week 18 game against the Commanders and didn’t look nearly as hot as he had looked every other time he’s played. That doesn’t mean that he’s bad. Look at how that offense functioned for the entirety of the 2025 season, and you’ll see that everyone (other than DeVonta Smith) underperformed the whole year.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, and fortunately for the Steelers, that means that the price for McKee is significantly lower than it could’ve been if he went out in early January and threw for 350 yards and three touchdowns like he’s fully capable of doing.
Based on what we, as a public, have seen, McKee’s athleticism isn’t going to blow you away. But the dude can stand and deliver, and operate an offense when he’s got the talent around him. With Pat Freiermuth, DK Metcalf, and Michael Pittman, that talent is there.
On top of that, he’s playing on the last year of his rookie contract. That means he’d be cheap (money-wise) for the Steelers, and they wouldn’t have to make a long-term decision on him until much later… which is apparently what they love to do.
As for his cost, Pittsburgh has three third-round picks. One is from the Cowboys (76th overall) from the George Pickens trade, their own (85th overall), and a compensatory pick (99th overall). All three of those are in the top-100, and if you tell Howie Roseman that he could turn the 188th pick from three years ago into a top-100 pick, he’d probably be pretty cool with that idea.
Or, you could go the route of trading a player. Right now, the Eagles have three tight ends on their roster: Dallas Goedert, Grant Calcaterra, and Johnny Mundt. Mundt is the only one of those cats that can block worth a hoot.
I’m just going to throw this out there: Tanner McKee for Darnell Washington?
Knowing who your quarterback is going to be in the future is just as important for building a team as knowing who your quarterback is going to be in the current year. With Rodgers, you don’t know if he’s ever going to come back. And if he does come back, you don’t know how many good games (or even just straight-up games) that you’re going to get out of him.
With McKee, you know that you’re going to get a quarterback with a high floor. Pair him up with a guy like Mike McCarthy, who consistently gets elevated play from his quarterbacks, and you should be cooking.
The point of all of this is that there is a way for the Steelers to get out from under the thumb of Aaron Rodgers. If they want competency at quarterback in 2026, it’s a small gap they’re going to have to squeeze through, and it’s shrinking every day that passes… but it is there.
They need to know that they have a problem, cut ties with the bad man, and make a move. It should be a normal operation for a functional team, but the Steelers have absolutely botched everything that they’ve done at quarterback since Big Ben started to show his mortality.