Mel Blount Rips Current State of Steelers: ‘I See a Lot of Needs’
Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount believes his former team is far from contending for a Super Bowl.
The Pittsburgh Steelers clearly have a void at quarterback as they continue to wait on Aaron Rodgers to make a decision on where he’ll play in 2025. But Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount believes his former team needs much more than just a quarterback to compete for a Super Bowl in 2025.
“I think the Steelers, right now, they could use help at every position,” Blount said on “Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger.” “Our defense is good, but we’re not where we should be. If you take T.J. (Watt) off of that defense, you don’t have a whole lot.”
The Steelers do find themselves in a difficult position. Most of their best players are on an aging defense, so the team continues to do its best to contend for a championship every year.
However, that is very hard to do without a franchise quarterback, which Pittsburgh has not had since Ben Roethlisberger retired following the 2021 season.
The Steelers have taken strides to build up their offense over the past couple of years, using several high draft picks on offensive linemen and trading for star wide receiver DK Metcalf.
Blount thinks they are still far from done, though.
“Then you’ve got to have people on the bench, who if somebody gets hurt, you can plug them in and you can keep rolling,” Blount said. “You might have a little drop off, but you can’t have a drop off that’s so significant.”
Outside of 2019 when the Steelers traded up to draft linebacker Devin Bush, they have not had a top 10 pick since 2000. That, of course, has kept them out of reach of some of the drafts’ top talent, most notably quarterbacks.
That is unlikely to change this year since Pittsburgh owns the No. 21 overall pick and quarterback doesn’t seem to be a strong suit in the 2025 NFL Draft, anyway. As a result, Blount’s outlook on his former team is also unlikely to change.
“It’s like a race, man. Once you get behind, it’s hard to catch up,” Blount said. “It will be interesting to see what Omar (Khan) and (Mike) Tomlin and that staff come up with because like I said earlier, if you’re asking me what I see in the Steelers, I see a lot of needs.”