The Pittsburgh Steelers have massively overhauled their quarterback room this offseason. They traded incumbent starter Kenny Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles. They allowed backups Mason Rudolph and Mitchell Trubisky to enter free agency. And sure enough, they signed Russell Wilson to a one-year deal after his release from the Denver Broncos, and traded for former Chicago Bears starter Justin Fields.
Ahead of this week’s NFL Draft, Steelers general manager Omar Khan admitted the team was unlikely to take a quarterback with the No. 20 pick in the first round, but he doesn’t has not completely ruled out this possibility either.
“I think it’s unrealistic that we take a quarterback in the first round, if that’s what you’re asking, no,” Khan said during his pre-draft press conference. “There are good players there, and I wouldn’t close the door on anything. If there is an opportunity to improve this room, obviously we will look at it, but like you said, we have three guys who are on one-year contracts and we have to be open to that.”
Wilson signed a one-year deal for near the league minimum, while Fields is heading into the final season of his rookie contract. Third-year quarterback Kyle Allen also has a one-year deal.
The future of the Steelers quarterback position is therefore clearly quite uncertain. It probably doesn’t make much sense for them to draft a signal-caller in the first round given the presence of both Wilson and Fields, but if a good enough player moves up to their pick, they also don’t have enough invested in one or the other. of these two players to really exclude this possibility. That’s why you get an answer like the one Khan gives, where he says it probably won’t happen, but you can basically never say never.