Mike Tomlin Is Right: Steelers Don’t Need Losing Season to Land a Top QB

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers have not had an elite quarterback for a long time. They certainly did not get anywhere near that range in 2024, and despite what head coach Mike Tomlin says, they don’t look likely to get there in 2025, either.
Russell Wilson, who started 11 games for the Steelers this season, finished 14th in the NFL in passer rating, 26th in QBR and 15th in adjusted net yards per attempt. Justin Fields, who started the first six games, ended up 19th, 27th and 25th in those three statistics.
That’s just not good enough. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of better options available to the Steelers. The free agent class is thin, and the 2025 NFL Draft class might be even worse, even for those teams at the top, let alone the Steelers, picking 21st.
That has caused some to call for the Steelers to do something drastic: take a step back intentionally, in order to land a top draft pick and make a top-tier quarterback available to them.
The 2026 NFL Draft quarterback class is expected to be a strong one, with Texas scion Arch Manning, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava leading the way.
So should the Steelers take a knee on the 2025 season, and maybe trade away some of their star players for draft capital, as some have suggested?
Mike Tomlin isn’t buying it.

“Lamar [Jackson] wasn’t taken at the top of the draft,” he said when asked about that during his end-of-season press conference at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on Tuesday. “[Jalen] Hurts wasn’t taken in the first round. So, I don’t know that I necessarily agree with the question.”
Tomlin has a point. Seven players have been selected as an All-Pro quarterback over the last five years: Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers and Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Brady was famously taken in the sixth round by the New England Patriots and then signed as a free agent by the Buccaneers. Prescott was a fourth-round pick. Hurts was a second-round pick. Jackson was taken with the last pick of the first round. Rodgers fell all the way to No. 24 overall.
Kansas City traded up from 27th to 10th in the 2017 to draft Mahomes. The Bills traded up from 12th to seventh to get Josh Allen in 2018.
None of the seven were taken by a team that started out with a top-10 draft pick. Joe Burrow, the 2024 NFL passing leader, was the No. 1 overall pick in 2022, but No. 2 Jared Goff was acquired in a trade. Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith and Sam Darnold were all signed as a free agent.
So of the All-Pro quarterbacks of the last five years, and all of the top five passers in the NFL in 2024, only one was acquired by their current team with a top draft pick. All the rest were either traded for, signed as a free agent, or traded up in the draft to acquire.
Of course, that may ring hollow with frustrated Steelers fans starting at their 2025 options and not seeing many of those coming to pass.