The Steelers are going through a mid-life crisis
The Pittsburgh Steelers are officially going through a mid-life crisis.
They’ve gone from one of the best teams in the league, winning Super Bowls, and making deep playoff runs to now being the uncle with a toupee at Thanksgiving, stuck reliving their glory days.
The Steelers were given some leeway after Ben Roethlisberger retired following the 2021 season. Few expected them to be the same vaunted team they had been in the 2000s through the 2010s, and rightfully so. But after three years, the Steelers are still trying to find themselves, and the way in which they’ve handled the post-Reothlisberger era has warranted a lot fo criticism.
They took quarterback Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, which many thought was a bit high for what Pickett’s skillset was. That era was ended quite briefly when Pittsburgh realized he clearly wasn’t the future, in large part due to Mason Rudolph stepping in and immediately playing better than the University of Pittsburgh product. And while it was clear Pickett wasn’t the future, it was also very clear the Steelers didn’t do anything to raise his floor or ceiling. Now after trading George Pickens, their first two picks in the 2022 draft didn’t see the end of their rookie deals – job well done in that final draft, Kevin Colbert.
Pickett was the football version of dating someone younger after a breakup to feel young again. That didn’t work, and so they bought a pair of sports cars they found on Craigslist, hoping they would fill the void. And for a while, they did. Pittsburgh took the newer car out for a few spins and had a good time, but really wanted to drive the vintage muscle car. It drove well and sounded great for a few weeks before every light on the dash came on, and it couldn’t be driven anymore.
Now, the Steelers went back to an old ex in Mason Rudolph and are waiting to get a 2:00 AM “You up?” text from Aaron Rodgers. Regardless of who starts, though, 2025 will mark the fourth straight season the Steelers have had a different Week 1 starter – a different starter in every year post-Big Ben. With the aforementioned Pickens trade, that also means this will be the third straight year they’ve had a new WR1 in Week 1.
This leaves us with the question we’ve had for quite some time now – who are the Steelers, and what are they trying to be? Are they a team that wants to win now? Are they rebuilding? Because if they were truly rebuilding, they would continue trading veterans for draft picks and gear up for the future. T.J. Watt would be gone, Cam Heyward would be gone, Minkah Fitzpatrick would be gone, and they wouldn’t be pursuing a weird friends-with-benefits relationship with Rodgers. And while I believe the Pickens trade was the right move, it does make their offense worse for the time being and doesn’t make them any better in 2025.
The NFL is a “What have you done recently?” league. And what the Steelers have done recently is go through five quarterbacks in three seasons, go two presidential terms without winning a playoff game, and become the mediocrity Mendoza line for the rest of the NFL. And while a first-round quarterback in 2026 seems like a potential light at the end of the tunnel, how much do we trust this staff to develop a quarterback and bring sustainability back to Pittsburgh? Given recent history, that’s a tough bet to make, even for the most optimistic of Steelers fans. But if the Steelers ever want to end this crisis they are in, they need to hit on the next franchise starter, or else they’ll be stuck in an endless loop of buying bootleg Rolexes and nine-win seasons.