First and 10: Steelers Strong Offseason Comes with Caveat

Alan Saunders |

Updated: Jun 23, 2022

The Pittsburgh Steelers have had one of their most active offseason in recent memory, and that continued this week with the signing of former Browns and Bengals defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi.

Ogunjobi joins Myles Jack, Levi Wallace, Damontae Kazee, Mitch Trubisky, James Daniels and Mason Cole as starters or former starters brought in by the Steelers this offseason, while the club also retained its own starters in Chukwuma Okorafor, Terrell Edmunds, Ahkello Witherspoon and extended the contract of star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick.

It’s been a lot and most of the moves have been well-received. But they’ve come with a catch. The reason that the Steelers have had the salary cap space to make all those moves — and still have a good bit of it left — is that they aren’t paying Ben Roethlisberger anymore.

Quarterback is the game’s most important position, and the Steelers have options in Trubisky, Mason Rudolph and Kenny Pickett, but none are sure things.

They’re paying top dollar for their defense, and it should be expected to perform at a high level as a result. By the same token, their quarterback play may very well be expected to be spotty.

The NFL is largely seen as an offense-first league, and so the Steelers plan doesn’t have people predicted a Super Bowl in the Steel City despite an otherwise strong offseason. Many teams have learned that if you can’t hack it at quarterback, a lot of the other moves don’t matter.

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