As the Steelers look to break a string of nine seasons with no playoff wins, there still seems to be an underlying faith among the citizens that the Steelers have a great organization and will ultimately get it right.
But nine years is a pretty big sample size to the contrary.
Here’s a list of cataclysmic errors the Steelers have made since 2019 that have contributed greatly to them being stuck in the mushy middle with a future that looks like more of the same, maybe worse:
• Traded their first-round pick in the 2020 draft to Miami for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. That was after Ben Roethlisberger popped his elbow in the second game of the 2019 season.
The Steelers salvaged their precious streak of no losing seasons for then-coach Mike Tomlin by finishing 8-8 using Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph at quarterback. But a 4-12 season might have resulted in drafting QB Justin Herbert.
Fitzpatrick was traded back to Miami this past offseason after never winning a playoff game with Pittsburgh.
• Selected quarterback Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 draft. That was a Tomlin decision, blinded by the romance of Pitt sharing a practice facility with the Steelers. Pickett just had to move across the parking lot.
But Pickett’s car wasn’t there long. He was a total bust, almost from the minute he arrived. It’s unlikely that any other NFL team considered him a first-round talent.
Drafting Pickett set the Steelers back at least five years, and it may turn out to be longer.
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• Traded up to draft Broderick Jones in 2023’s first round. Jones was pegged to be the Steelers’ long-term answer at left tackle. That’s where he played at Georgia.
Except the Steelers didn’t put Jones at left tackle, continuing to use veteran Dan Moore Jr. despite Moore being one of the NFL’s very worst at that position by any available metric.
Jones played right tackle as a rookie. He would have been a backup in 2024, but incoming first-round pick Troy Fautanu got hurt. So, Jones stayed at right tackle. Jones finally played left tackle this past season after Moore departed. Jones was meh but improving before sustaining a season-ending neck injury in Week 12.
The Steelers prioritized getting Jones to fill a position of need, then put him everywhere but in a position to succeed. Here’s betting he doesn’t sign a second contract with the Steelers.
• The Steelers could have made edge rusher T.J. Watt play out the last year of his existing contract this past season, then franchised him for one or two seasons as performance dictated.
The Steelers instead gave Watt, 31, a three-year, $123 million extension with $108 million guaranteed at signing and an average annual value of $41 million. That’s one million more per year than Watt’s rival, Cleveland’s Myles Garrett.
It was quickly proven a bad decision when Watt declined to just seven sacks this past season. But Watt got his greed and ego gratified, didn’t have to know an unpleasant moment and we didn’t have to hear Watt whine in stereo with Cam Heyward. (I’m grateful for that last part.)
• The Steelers traded for wide receiver DK Metcalf last offseason and gave him a four-year contract worth $132 million with $60 million guaranteed. That’s No. 1 receiver money.
Except Metcalf isn’t a No. 1 receiver. He wasn’t one in Seattle — Jaxon Smith-Njigba is, as evidenced by Seattle somehow winning the Super Bowl without Metcalf — and decidedly wasn’t one in Pittsburgh in 2025, as evidenced by bland numbers with an eye test to match.
Now the Steelers are tasked with getting a wideout that’s better than Metcalf, perhaps in the first round of this year’s draft. But they’re already paying Metcalf too much money.
• The Steelers have gone the entirety of the last two seasons without a true No. 2 wideout. Not since trading Diontae Johnson. The absurdity of that is mind-boggling.
The Steelers need to get three legitimate receivers this offseason. But they might again acquiesce to Aaron Rodgers’ preferences, which last season saw the acquisition of fellow fossil Adam Thielen and Rodgers crony Marquez Valdes-Scantling along with Scotty Miller being on the field too much.
Or they might not bother to fix it, just like the last two seasons.
That is quite a litany of failure inside of seven years. It doesn’t even include lesser errors, like the Mitch Trubisky experiment and a whole bunch of bad draft picks besides Pickett and Jones.
These aren’t minor mistakes. These are franchise-altering screw-ups.
The Steelers aren’t a good organization anymore.
A feel-good hire of a coach from Greenfield doesn’t correct that. It’s a butterfly stitch on a shotgun wound.