If there is one thing that has been holding the Pittsburgh Steelers back in recent seasons, it's their quarterback play. Since Ben Roethlisberger exited his prime, the team has been struggling to find quality play at the game's most important position.
With Kenny Pickett headed into Year 3 of his rookie contract and seemingly having been supplanted by veteran backups, the Steelers have an obvious need at quarterback once again. And Steelers president Art Rooney II isn't ruling out any avenues to acquiring that player -- including a trade for another veteran QB.
"Would you be willing to make a trade for a current quarterback, if the price was right in that kind of a situation," Rooney was asked by Bob Pompeani of CBS News Pittsburgh.
"Well, you know, as we sit here in early February, we're not closing the door on anything," Rooney replied. "We have a lot of evaluations to go through, and we'll go through all the options and do what we need to do to be better this coming season."
The Steelers hold the No. 20 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, which is the exact spot they drafted Pickett in 2022. Prior to that, they hadn't selected a quarterback in the first round since taking Roethlisberger at No. 11 overall back in 2007. Obviously, they didn't need to.
With a need for an upgrade and perhaps a distaste for making another late first-round selection, perhaps the Steelers could try to get in on the market for players like Justin Fields or Kyler Murray, or even some of the veteran free agents like Kirk Cousins or Ryan Tannehill. However they do it, they do need to add someone so that Pickett is not their unquestioned starter heading into camp. We've seen through his first two seasons that that's not likely to work. And with his backups being Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph, the Steelers don't have an in-house option who is a surefire starter, either. That situation leads to a quote like the one Rooney gave, where the team cannot rule out any avenue of quarterback-acquisition.
