Lots of the Steelers’ offseason decisions will be easy and obvious.
Justin Fields will be the starting quarterback in 2025.
Fields can be had for $15 million per season or less, maybe on a two-year deal. He’s 25, has lots of athletic ability, very low football IQ but is a reasonable gamble while the Steelers look for their long-term answer at QB. It’s a longshot, but Fields could prove himself to be that.
What choice do the Steelers have?
Russell Wilson won’t improve, might well further decline and will want too much money. (Perhaps upwards of $30 million per.)
There won’t be anyone worth drafting with the 21st pick. (Kenny Pickett was the 20th pick in 2022. Selecting Pickett set the Steelers back years. It’s Pickett’s third NFL season. He should be coming into his own and still affordable on his first contract. He’s a backup in Philadelphia instead.)
Trading for a QB or recycling a free agent seems unlikely. At least Fields has a season under offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, who was reportedly at odds with Wilson and might have preferred Fields.
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Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin and offensive line coach Pat Meyer will be terminated.
The latter is a no-brainer. That offensive line was terrible.
The former is disingenuous. Head coach Mike Tomlin runs that defense.
But the way the season ended demands a few sacrificial lambs. (Too bad the Steelers didn’t ditch Austin at the end of last season and keep Brian Flores, who became Minnesota’s defensive coordinator after a one-year stint as a Steelers assistant and made the Vikings the NFL’s seventh-best defense. Flores is a bright football mind. Austin isn’t.)
But some decisions aren’t so easy and obvious.
Should the Steelers extend George Pickens and T.J. Watt? Both are headed into the last seasons of their current contracts.
Pickens has a penchant for being late, we’ve seen him blow up on the sidelines, has behavioral red flags dating to his collegiate career at Georgia and is generally a ticking time bomb. If he gets big money, he’ll go nuts. If he’s made to play out his contract as a lame duck, he’ll go nuts.
Pickens is also quite literally the only playmaker the Steelers have.
Watt is 30. He’s beat up after playing eight NFL seasons at a breakneck pace. Watt finished the campaign with two straight games where he registered no stats. Mr. Blutarsky … zero-point-zero.
Watt had 11½ sacks, tied for eighth in the league. But he had 10 games (of 18) where he registered no sacks. His impact was inconsistent, especially for an edge rusher making quarterback money at a cap hit of $30 million. It’s not unreasonable to believe that Watt is past his prime.
The Steelers usually extend prominent players when there’s one year left on their pacts. Equally traditional is that player staging a “hold-in” till he gets his deal. (Showing up at camp but not fully participating.)
The Steelers always give in. Why would Pickens and Watt expect any different?
But if there was ever a time for the Steelers to be different, it’s after eight years without a playoff win and five straight losses to end this season.
Watt might look at Cameron Heyward, who got extended last offseason and responded by making first-team All-Pro at age 35.
Pickens won’t consider anything besides what he wants, and on his schedule.
Both players will get extended.
The Steelers are one big, happy family.
A family that doesn’t win playoff games.
What the Steelers really need is a couple of 4-13 seasons.