Steel City Blitz
The Pittsburgh Steelers return to Latrobe this week putting an end to one of their busiest offseasons perhaps ever. Guys like Minkah Fitzpatrick and George Pickens are gone. Guys like Jalen Ramsey, Jonnu Smith and Darius Slay are here. And frankly? That’s just scratching the surface. The one question – that we won’t ever get a straight answer on – is whether the franchise is “all-in” or just prepping for the future.
I asked this very question on social media yesterday and while the polling isn’t quite complete at the time of this writing, Steelers’ fans overwhelmingly believe the team is ‘all-in’ for 2025. It’s roughly 70-30 right now and I don’t see that changing. The reason I posted the question is because I think the true answer is somewhere in between.
In some ways, the Steelers remind me of those early Dan Snyder Washington Redskins’ teams. They were acquiring some of the most talented guys in the league with only one problem. They were all at the end of their careers. Deion Sanders (33) and Bruce Smith (36) would both go on to the Hall of Fame but they weren’t the players they once were in Washington. The Steelers are hoping that Aaron Rodgers, Darius Slay and Robert Woods still have enough left to make a run.
On the flip-side however is the youth and those one-year deals. Four of the five projected starters on the offensive line are in their early to mid 20’s. There is also youth sprinkled in literally at every other position so we could say that what Omar Khan and Mike Tomlin have accumulated is a nice blend of young and old. What really makes me think this isn’t an ‘all-in’ situation is the number of shorter contracts the team has used.
There are an unusually high number of players – key players in fact – that are either on one-year deals or have contracts that have very easy “outs” if you will. This suggests that we will once again see a lot of turnover on the roster for 2026. This also would work in tandem with what all of us perceive as a rookie quarterback coming in. The Steelers possess double-digit draft picks and there are expected to be a higher-than-normal amount of top QB prospects.
While no guarantee they will get a top signal-caller in 2026 one would be a fool to consider any other option as of this time. The NFL is a QB-driven league. If you have one, you’ve got a shot. If you don’t, forget it. What any Black and Gold fan knows is that this franchise will never “tank.” They will be as competitive as they can be without giving away what their true intentions for the future may be. The one thing we know is that it all starts this week.
The post All-In? Reloading? It’s Somewhere in Between for the Steelers appeared first on Steel City Blitz.
