Steelers Now
Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back and Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis recently weighed in on the Steelers quarterback situation during an interview with DJ Siddi of Sports Lens. The Bus thinks the Steelers are stuck in NFL purgatory because they don’t have an answer at the games most important position. Recycling veteran quarterbacks has clearly not worked.
“What they’re doing right now will not work. It’s proven that it doesn’t work. They have to re-commit themselves to finding that quarterback,” Bettis told Siddi.
Should the Steelers go all-in for Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward since Pittsburgh never drafts in the top-10? Bettis thinks it should be considered, citing how the Kansas City Chiefs traded up for Patrick Mahomes in 2017.
“You have to be willing to invest. If one of these guys you believe is the guy, then you gotta go all out,” Bettis said. “If it takes three first-round picks, you’ve got to give them three first-round picks.
“You saw Kansas City went from No. 27 to No. 10 in the 2017 NFL Draft and they got the guy they wanted. They wanted Mahomes and they went and got him. If you feel one of these guys is your guy, you gotta go get him.”
Bettis thinks the Steelers have reached their ceiling the last two seasons — posting a 10-7 record and being eliminated in the Wild Card Round. They won’t go any further until they figure out a long-term solution at quarterback.
“They don’t have the quarterback play that they need to have to be a special football team,” Bettis said. “I think because of that, they haven’t been able to be a championship-caliber team. They are a playoff-caliber team, but not a championship-caliber team.”
The Steelers would like to sign one of their two incumbent quarterbacks to a long-term contract this offseason, president Art Rooney II said during his annual press conference with local beat writers.
Rooney said that he think it’s unlikely that the Steelers will sign both of them, and that his preference would be for more than the one-year deal both players played under in 2024.
Rooney made it clear that figuring out the best option at quarterback will be a top priority for the team this offseason.
“I think they’re both capable quarterbacks, and my preference would be to sign one of them. So that will be the priority, and I think that will give us the best opportunity to move forward,” Rooney said about the possibility of re-signing either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. “Obviously, we’ll be looking in the draft as well. We’ve got a whole quarterback room to fill, and so there’s jobs open in there, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if we look in the draft as well either this year or next. And so that’s got to be the priority.”
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