My Super Bowl gathering Sunday night couldn’t have been the only one in Pittsburgh that had this kind of conversation.
“What if the Steelers had been willing to outbid Seattle for Sam Darnold?”
There were plenty of reports that the Steelers made an offer for his services. To what extent they were (or weren’t) willing to go above the $100 million over three years that Seattle gave him has never been stated on the record. But, given that Darnold was going to work with offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak (who he had as an assistant in San Francisco), Omar Khan and Art Rooney II would’ve likely had to go well beyond the $55 million guaranteed that he got from the Seahawks.
Especially because it wouldn’t have just been about buying out the interest Darnold may have had in Seattle, they would’ve needed to pay him enough to actually want to come here instead of going out west.
Why would he have wanted to do that? To work with Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith instead of Mike Macdonald and Kubiak?
Whether he was sold on Seattle at the time or not, I could certainly see why he would’ve needed a Brinks truck with Pennsylvania plates to pull up to his home in Minnesota at the time if he ever would’ve made the call to come here.
And if Darnold did come here, given what the Steelers had in place offensively versus Seattle, you wouldn’t have seen the kind of season from him that you did with the Seahawks.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is better than DK Metcalf. Cooper Kupp is still better than anyone the Steelers put out as a No. 2 wide receiver. The duo of Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet is better than Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell. I don’t know if A.J. Barner is better than Pat Freiermuth, but I know Seattle uses their guy better. Pittsburgh’s offensive line certainly improved as the season went along, but Broderick Jones may have gotten Darnold killed in September.
And, if they did manage to sweet-talk him, at least Darnold would be in place for Mike McCarthy now. That would intrigue me.
But playing the “what-if” game from a Steelers perspective is futile with Darnold. It probably always has been. Maybe the “what-if game” should be played with Kubiak.
What if they at least showed some interest in that guy instead of hiring Mike McCarthy to replace Mike Tomlin. Where was McCarthy going to go? Who else was going to hire him?
Wouldn’t Kubiak have been worth the wait to at least interview in person? Now he’ll be the head coach in Las Vegas instead.
"Hell yeah, I'm going [to Las Vegas.]"
Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak confirms with @StaceyDales that he will be the next coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. pic.twitter.com/DEtOPhXbMM
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) February 9, 2026
The way the McCarthy hire has been portrayed, Khan and Rooney decided they had their guy after just three interviews and fulfilling the Rooney rule. Why not a little more interest in the coach that Darnold wanted to be with, and who just turned him into a Super Bowl winner?
Whatever Khan and Rooney see in McCarthy in terms of an offensive mind, I’m not sure what they fail to see in Kubiak. It’s just that if things work out with Kubiak, you might actually be able to keep him on your payroll for another 19 years like the last guy who coached this team.
At 62, I’m pretty sure that won’t be the case with McCarthy.
They at least showed some initial interest in his brother, Klay. Yet there was very little noise about a connection between the Steelers and Klint Kubiak. Maybe that was a two-way street.
I get it. With McCarthy, you’ve got a Super Bowl legacy, 185 total NFL wins (playoffs included), the Pittsburgh ties (if you think that matters) and a connection to Aaron Rodgers, who the Steelers apparently want back as their QB in 2026 (for better or worse).
McCarthy is safe. Kubiak is unknown. But no one knew how well Darnold was going to work out in Seattle, and I bet Seahawks general manager John Schneider feels like a Super Bowl is well worth $55 million guaranteed.
For now, though, Steelers fans are just celebrating the fact that New England didn’t get a seventh Super Bowl trophy before Pittsburgh did.
Well, here’s one more “what-if” game for you. What if next year, with Drake Maye a year wiser and more seasoned, they do?
How will “safe” feel then?
More sports
• Joe Starkey: Malik Willis is the kind of quarterback the Steelers should be courting
• Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: Top storylines to watch for as Pirates start spring training
• GoFundMe campaign is sending Christine Graves, mother of Olympic bobsledder Jasmine Jones, to Italy