Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2025 season ended the way it began on Monday — with the team mostly twiddling its thumbs as time fruitlessly passes by.
The Steelers lost 30-6 to the Houston Texans in game that was both closer than the score and somehow not. The Steelers were still well within striking distance, down only four points when a Houston strip sack and defensive touchdown by Will Anderson turned the game on its ear.
A play here or there — a critical drop by DK Metcalf, a non-call on a long pass to Calvin Austin III — and the Steelers might have found a way to win this game.
They were also out-gained 408-175, and it was only through the graces of three Houston turnovers that they were in the game at all.
After the first defensive touchdown, Houston scored again, pushing the score to the final lopsided margin. Mason Rudolph entered the game. The Steelers handed off a bunch, as the crowd exited Acrisure Stadium, except for those few masochists who stayed to watch the clock finally hit zeroes.
They simply wasted the time. And really, that’s the story of the 2025 Steelers, a team who entered the season with low expectations, few aspirations, and ended up just about where you’d figure, given that combination.
Let’s start by rewinding. Coming off the 2024 season, the Steelers took a hard look at the 2025 NFL Draft class, squinted hard at their own draft position and relative lack of capital, and decided that it wasn’t the year to take a big swing at the quarterback position.
That thought eventually led them to signing Aaron Rodgers at quarterback — the stop-gap of all stop-gaps at 41 years old.
At the same time, the allure of the 2026 NFL Draft class at the quarterback position was strong. Promised to be a strong class, the Steelers used one hand to load up on draft capital in the upcoming selection, intentionally limiting the team’s free agent acquisitions and trading away George Pickens for draft picks in order to bolster the team’s stockpile to an impressive 12 picks, with five of the them in the top 100.
But the Steelers weren’t solely future-leaning. While in the middle of a big-picture rebuild, they also made moves to win now, as well, adding veterans DK Metcalf, Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay and Jonnu Smith to the picture.
From the big picture perspective, the Steelers were trying to do two things at the same time — win a playoff game, and put themselves in position to draft a quarterback this coming April.
They failed at the first. The second is on thin ice.
The 2026 NFL Draft quarterback class did not materialize as it looked like it might. While there is top talent, it does not currently appear that either of the top two players will be available to them, even if they tried to trade up.
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