Steelers Now
It’s been five weeks since the end of the 2024 season for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and there has been basically no external sign as to what the team intends to do at quarterback for 2025 to this point.
Steelers president Art Rooney II said in his post-season press session that his preference would be to sign one of Justin Fields or Russell Wilson to a multi-year contract, which seemed to set the table for such a deal to take place in the coming weeks. That was four weeks ago. There has been no movement.
Of course, Rooney said positive things about Kenny Pickett in his year-end press conference in 2024. General manager Omar Khan said he had “full faith” in Pickett during his briefing with the media at the 2024 NFL Combine last February. Pickett was traded away two weeks later.
So clearly, you can’t always go by what they say. Steelers Now sources indicate that the Steelers top brass has not reached a conclusion, with supporters of both Fields and Wilson remaining in the building. Others strongly dislike both options, and could possibly have been the sources of stories linking the Steelers to options such as Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford and even the unlikely and since-denied pursuit of Trevor Lawrence.
So, part of the reason that the Steelers haven’t made any news at the quarterback position is that they haven’t made up their minds.
But we might not know it right when they do, either. The players involved have a good bit to say about who will be the Steelers’ quarterback in 2025.
Wilson seems eager to return to Pittsburgh, and likely with good reason. It’s hard to envision another team handing him the reigns after the five-game meltdown to end the 2024 season. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine the Steelers doing it, too, but here we are. If the Steelers wanted Wilson to put his autograph on a dotted line tomorrow, he probably would. The fact that he hasn’t should tell you a lot.
Fields, on the other hand, is not such an open and shut case. Fields has been widely praised for the way he handled being benched during the 2024 season, but that process likely didn’t make a return to the Steelers the No. 1 priority for him this offseason, despite him saying that he would like to. The can’t trust the words things goes for players as well as teams.
In a very weak free agent class at quarterback, the way the Steelers protected Fields in 2024 may end up playing to his benefit. He posted the best numbers of his career by far, led the team to a 4-2 start, and doesn’t have the late-season stink on him that players like Wilson and Sam Darnold have.
Wilson is likely looking for one last paycheck at this point in his career, but Fields is probably on the hunt for a semi-significant payday.
In the NFL quarterback spectrum, there is a very wide salary gulf between...
