The Pittsburgh Steelers are in dire straits at the quarterback position. It has been a never-ending carousel of mediocrity ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired and that is unlikely to change in 2025 from the looks of it.
After rolling the dice on Russell Wilson and Justin Fields last season, both left for greener pastures in free agency. Now, Pittsburgh patiently awaits the decision of 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers, who is coming off of a karmically humbling 2024 season with the New York Jets. Otherwise, the options are sparse. That did not prevent veteran linebacker Nick Herbig from praising the options currently available to Pittsburgh, even without Rodgers on the roster.
"We got a Big Ten guy, Ohio State guy (Will Howard)" Herbig said on the Not Just Football Podcast (h/t Steelers Now). "We got (Mason) Rudolph. He’s always in the gun, in the slinger. We got options. We got options. You know, I like our options right now. I do."
This confidence seems... ill-advised.
Nick Herbig's faith in Steelers QB room is bound to backfire
Look, there's nothing else Herbig could have said in this situation. He's not going to go on a podcast and badmouth his teammates or undermine his team's competitive aspirations. And yet, this feels like a statement destined to blow up in his face. We know this QB room does not work. This becomes easy fodder for internet haters down the road.
The Steelers should not, in fact, "like their options." We can speak more plainly than Herbig. Mason Rudolph was a backup on the worst team in the NFL last season and they were worse when he stepped into the starting role. Will Howard was a sixth-round pick for a reason. He's talented, sure, but there are serious questions about his ability to level up in the NFL. As for Skylar Thompson, he was the catastrophically bad Plan B when Tua Tagovailoa got hurt in Miami last season. He is not an NFL quarterback.
Pittsburgh can alleviate some of these concerns with Rodgers, but he's little more than your run-of-the-mill starting option at this point — if that. The Jets won five games. Five. That was with Garrett Wilson and Davante Adams catching passes from the four-time MVP. Rodgers can still read the field like a book, but his decline in mobility and zip was noticeable.
We also know what to expect from the Steelers' offense at this point. Arthur Smith cleared the very low bar of being better than Matt Canada, but Pittsburgh remains allergic to stretching the field or engineering big plays. Especially with such a muted talent pool at quarterback.
There was some hope that an abundance of playmaking firepower might offset a feeble QB room and a reserved play-caller, but Pittsburgh turned around and dealt George Pickens to Dallas rather than extending him. DK Metcalf is an awesome WR1, but he's the only wideout of note on the Steelers' roster now. Najee Harris is out. This is just not a good enough offensive team to sustain winning in the playoffs, with or without Rodgers.
Mike Tomlin is always reliable for 8-to-10 wins in the regular season, but this Steelers roster may honestly challenge that streak. Even if Pittsburgh does squeak into the playoffs again, there's no reason to consider them remotely close to Kansas City, Buffalo or Baltimore on the scale of Super Bowl contenders.