Steelers Now
INDIANAPOLIS — The Pittsburgh Steelers are pushing to have one of their two incumbent quarterbacks under contract before the start of the new league year, general manager Omar Khan said in a private briefing with the Pittsburgh media before a public appearance at the 2025 NFL Combine on Tuesday.
Khan continued in the footsteps of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and president Art Rooney II in refusing to acknowledge a favorite between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields going forward, saying that both remain an option for the team.
“We’ve had conversations with both Russ’ people and Justin’s representatives,” Khan said. “Ideally, you’d like to sign one of the guys we had last year, but the reality is they’re both free agents.”
But while both players are set to become free agents, Khan doesn’t seem keen on letting either test the market. He said the Steelers have a lot of other work to do in free agency, and quarterback is the first piece of the puzzle, so he’d like to have a deal done with one of his two incumbents beforehand.
“In an ideal scenario, you’d like to have this done before the start of the league year,” Khan said. “That impacts who you sign. That impacts the type of receiver you may go after or how you build the rest of the team, so all of that has an effect.”
Khan also said that both players have been understanding about the team’s timeline, and does not think it will be a hiccup in getting one of them to sign on the dotted line over the next two weeks.
“I think they understand that,” he said. “I truly believe those guys understand that we want to put whoever the quarterback is under center in the best position to succeed. For us to add our pieces, that’s the first part of this.”
As far as external options, Khan declined to specifically answer a question about whether the team has been in conversations with representatives of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who has been given permission to seek a trade, but said that until a deal is done, he’ll be aggressively exploring every other opportunity.
“All options are on the table,” Khan said. “We don’t have one of our guys under contract. So I owe it to everyone to keep all options on the table.”
