The Pittsburgh Steelers have a transparent technique and goal for 2026 and past, however their plan to compete in 2025 appears half-baked at finest. Taking a look at free company, the draft, and the trades which have taken place, it’s troublesome to determine too many positions the place the Steelers have clearly gotten higher. With a disastrous finish to the 2024 season and a troublesome schedule in 2025, that would spell huge hassle.
In keeping with Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox, the Steelers offseason has earned them a ‘D’ grade with just one crew having a worse offseason than them.
“The Steelers have by no means skilled a dropping season beneath head coach Mike Tomlin. That’s unlikely to alter in 2025, nevertheless it doesn’t really feel like Pittsburgh is poised to be a Tremendous Bowl contender both,” Knox wrote. “Even when Rodgers agrees to start out for the Steelers in 2025, that’s not ultimate. He might have extra left within the tank than he confirmed with the Jets final season, however he’s nonetheless no long-term reply on the recreation’s most necessary place. And the Steelers, it might appear, don’t actually have one.”
With Rodgers, the Steelers are betting on the very best of a number of dangerous choices. As soon as they had been unable to retain Justin Fields, it grew to become clear that Rodgers was their solely hope at a semi aggressive possibility for the 2025 season. With an growing older core of veteran defenders, punting to 2026 wasn’t an possibility. It by no means actually is for the Steelers and their organizational philosophy.
To make up their total ‘D’ grade, Knox gave them an ‘F’ without cost company and trades and a ‘C’ for the draft.
Omar Khan admitted that the compensatory decide system closely influenced the crew’s free company choices to maximise their 2026 draft capital. That’s why their greatest splash signing was 34-year-old CB Darius Slay who was minimize from his earlier crew and thus doesn’t depend in opposition to the comp decide system. The Steelers completely had the money to make a splashy signing, however it might have offset the lack of Dan Moore Jr. and robbed them of a third-round decide subsequent yr.
It’s laborious to knock the crew an excessive amount of for placing collectively a cohesive technique to accumulate a franchise quarterback within the draft, however that’s nonetheless removed from a assure. And there’s no denying that the put up Ben Roethlisberger period has been a whole catastrophe with the primes of a number of nice careers wasted in mediocrity.
The George Pickens commerce was simply the most recent instance of the Steelers straddling the road between desirous to be aggressive in 2025 and loading up on draft picks for 2026. Why even trouble with making an attempt to signal Rodgers in the event that they aren’t doing every thing potential to maximise the expertise for 2025? There are a lot of who would favor to see Mason Rudolph or Will Howard get a chance in 2025.
So as to actually enhance in 2025, the Steelers want Aaron Rodgers to bounce again higher than he ever did in New York. They’d additionally want the offensive line investments to lastly begin paying off, and a few fairly important rookie contributions from Derrick Harmon and Kaleb Johnson. It’s not not possible, however that’s relying on numerous issues to go proper.
For a corporation that all the time tries to compete within the present season, that is as near punting on a yr as I can ever bear in mind.
