One day after Dan Orlovsky floated the idea that Kirk Cousins should be among the calls the Steelers make this offseason to upgrade at quarterback, one of his co-analysts on NFL Live, Marcus Spears, made a similar point.
Spears is on the train that the Steelers keeping Mike Tomlin is the correct move, but he needs an explosive offense to pair with it. The idea proposed to Spears by Get Up’s host, Mike Greenberg, was that they could go out and get Cousins in the offseason. Spears believes that would make them a Super Bowl contender.
“If you put Kirk Cousins on the Steelers, are they a Super Bowl contender next year,” Greenberg questioned.
Spears then gave his crystal clear stance.
“You damn right they are,” Spears said. “You are absolutely right they are. An explosive offense with Mike Tomlin is a Super Bowl contender. Guaranteed. What other further proof do we need? Here’s the thing when it comes to Mike Tomlin — because we just came off the conversation of being prepared — that Pittsburgh Steelers team had no business being in the playoffs this year. Zero. They have two phenomenal edge rushers, they got a really good safety on the back-end, but everything else on this team was patchwork. He had to fire his offensive coordinator in the middle of the season and they managed to get this team to where they needed to be.”
It’s hard to fully pivot back to Kenny Pickett after he was benched for Mason Rudolph, but Cousins would shut the door completely on Pickett’s status with the team, at least for the next two years. He would elevate the team, but coming off a torn Achilles and likely demanding a hefty salary has me skeptical that Pittsburgh would even consider making a move this significant to land Cousins.