Ranking the 5 dumbest solutions to the Pittsburgh Steelers QB problem
By John Buhler
3. Signing Baker Mayfield in free agency and Kenny Pickett backs him up
This is too volatile of a fit for me to really entertain. Baker Mayfield needs to either re-up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in his free agency, or go to a team without a quarterback of the future who runs a passer-friendly offense. That would be teams like the Atlanta Falcons, the Las Vegas Raiders or even the Tennessee Titans. Mayfield to the Steelers would be like oil and water for all involved.
I could see immediate and intense friction with new Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. He prefers to run things from a ground-first perspective, whereas Mayfield was groomed by the Air Raid system in college. Add in head coach Mike Tomlin being stubborn as hell and the Steelers' locker room one of the most disruptive in the league, and this could go to hell in a hand basket very quickly.
At this stage of the game, Mayfield has more leverage than he probably had coming out of Oklahoma. He will be able to pick where he wants to go among a handful of quarterback-desparate teams. While I am sure Mayfield would get along with Pickett just fine, I could totally see Tomlin and Smith giving him an incredibly short leash in his first season with the Steelers. This is a collective no, thank you.
From an entertainment standpoint, I am rooting for it because I want to see something combustible.