The ESSENTIAL Football Show 2025 Cap Space: $29.4 million
2026 Cap Space: $113.6 million
2027 Cap Space: $231.9 million
2026 Draft Picks: Own Picks, Rounds 1-7, plus Comp Picks Rd 3, Rd 4, Rd 5, Rd 6
As I roll through the 2024 NFL playoff field, there is a distinct feeling of let-down on reaching the Pittsburgh Steelers roster.
Mike Tomlin has been an outstanding head coach over the course of his tenure, and if the Steelers moved on from him, I don’t think it would be remotely surprising to see Tomlin immediately revive himself in a new position, a la Andy Reid at the end of the Eagles era. At some point, this inability to get things on track at the quarterback position has to be the overriding factor, and as things stand in May, I don’t see a path to getting a viable quarterback option for 2025.
The Steelers don’t seem to look at it that way, or at least signing a player like cornerback Darius Slay, who is at the end of his career, doesn’t line up with a team that’s content to take a breather this year. It hasn’t been the mindset while they still have players like Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, and Alex Highsmith in their defensive front, and it doesn’t seem likely to change now.
Quarterback
Starter: Mason Rudolph
Backups: Will Howard (6th Rd), Skylar Thompson
Running Back
Starters: Jaylen Warren
Backups: Kaleb Johnson (3rd Rd), Kenneth Gainwell, Cordarrelle Patterson
Wide Receiver
Starters: DK Metcalf, Calvin Austin
Backups: Robert Woods, Roman Wilson, Ben Skowronek, Scotty Miller
Tight End
Starters: Pat Freiermuth
Backups: Darnell Washington, Connor Heyward (FB), Donald Parham Jr.
Offensive Line
Starters: Broderick Jones, Isaac Seumalo, Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick, Troy Fautanu
Backups: Dylan Cook, Spencer Anderson, Ryan McCollum, Max Scharping, Calvin Anderson
Offense Overview
The infrastructure isn’t bad in Pittsburgh, but unless sixth-round pick Will Howard surprises everyone, I don’t see who is going to pull this offense together. Mason Rudolph was terrible in Tennessee last season, and based on the film he put out there in 2024, Aaron Rodgers has already retired, even if he doesn’t realize it.
Rodgers can still put up some highlight-reel throws, but on a down-to-down basis, he was rough to watch last season. The offense was largely limited to throws in the short area and verticals up the sidelines, as Rodgers showed absolutely no interest in getting hit, and the lack of cohesion between the run and the pass game made the whole thing worse. The chemistry (or lackthereof) between Rodgers and Garrett Wilson was arguably the most bizarre thing going on in the NFL last season, and what seemed like a personal beef cost the Jets in the biggest moments, including a sack late in their Week 14 loss to Miami that saw Rodgers look to Davante Adams in an unfavorable coverage to the boundary when the play design had gotten Wilson matched on a linebacker in the slot; Wilson uncovered immediately, but by the time Rodgers came back to him, the pressure had hit, and the opportunity was gone. The Dolphins tied the game on a late field goal and scored a touchdown in overtime, putting the final nail in New York’s coffin.
If Rodgers were in Pittsburgh for the offseason program, and it looked like his only priority was going out on a better foot, maybe this would work out, but I could see major conflict from an offensive scheme point of view if Rodgers isn’t fully bought into what Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith wants to do. That was a problem with Rodgers in his first year working with Matt LaFleur in Green Bay, and the fact that he put together back-to-back MVP seasons once he bought into that system doesn’t seem to have generated any sort of enlightenment, because Rodgers reverted to the static, stale version of the West Coast that had gotten Mike McCarthy fired in Green Bay once Rodgers was in New York.
Perhaps this is a waste of paper (though if Mason Rudolph is the quarterback, I don’t know what I’d write), and Rodgers ultimately isn’t in Pittsburgh’s plans, but this feels like a slightly upgraded version of what the Colts were doing in the post-Andrew Luck years as they brought in aging veterans for one final go around.
At the end of the day, the Steelers probably should have yanked Russell Wilson in their Week 16 matchup with the Ravens. During that game, Wilson had a chance to put the Steelers ahead 14-7 on a scramble from the Baltimore 23, but instead of getting the ball in the paint, as he would have done ten years ago, Wilson was run down by Ravens safety Ar’Darius Washington, who forced a fumble to boot, and set Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense up to take a lead they wouldn’t hand back.
To me, it was the sort of play where any hope of Wilson recapturing the old magic was snuffed out, and with a young player with some upside on the sidelines, I don’t understand why Tomlin didn’t make a switch that seemingly would have made more sense in the short-term and the long-term.
If they did have a trigger man, the infrastructure in Pittsburgh has a chance to be as good as it’s been in years. Broderick Jones remains something of a question mark entering his third season, but he certainly seems to be moving in the right direction in terms of correcting some of the over-balancing issues that have caused him issues in pass protection, and he certainly has the physical traits to be a quality player. Across from him, Troy Fautanu looked extremely promising in his extremely limited action last season, and that brief foray came when Fautanu had already missed the start of the season with the knee injury that ultimately sidelined him. The injury is a concern, but if he’s right, Fautanu reminded me a lot of Minnesota’s Christian Darrisaw in the brief glimpse we got of him, just a heavy-handed player with really sound, grounded feet. The interior has a promising building block in center Zach Frazier, who was a plus player out of the gates as a rookie, a solid veteran in left guard Isaac Seumalo, and another intriguing piece in right guard Mason McCormick, who held up all right as a 4th-round rookie out of South Dakota State, a profile that suggests he could make a significant jump in the offseason and cement himself as a long-term building block.
The tight end room features Pat Freiermuth, who is a textbook definition of “solid, all-around in-line player” as well as the massive Darnell Washington, who had a clearly defined role in Arthur Smith’s offense last season and should continue to offer defenses a unique challenge on the edge. Smith also has his usual grab-bag of utility players, including fullback/move tight end Connor Heyward, “joker” Cordarrelle Patterson, and an interesting depth piece in the 6’8 Donald Parham, who didn’t see much work after the Chargers moved on from him last season.
Smith’s project pieces aside, the passing offense will run through D.K. Metcalf, who comes over via trade on a significant contract extension that works for the Steelers in the short-term and the long-term. While Metcalf has played six seasons, he’s only 27, and his size is a unique trait that isn’t going away with age. Throw in the projected cap increases in years to come, and Metcalf’s new deal will likely end up looking pretty solid for Pittsburgh, assuming he’s healthy and they find a quarterback. In the backfield, the Steelers added Kaleb Johnson in the third round, who will presumably replace Najee Harris in a tandem with Jaylen Warren, and they also added former Eagle Kenneth Gainwell, who can add something as a complementary piece out of the backfield.
Defensive Tackle
Starters: Cam Heyward, Keeanu Benton, Derrick Harmon (1st Rd)
Backups: Daniel Ekuale, Isaiah Loudermilk, DeMarvin Leal, Dean Lowry, Yahya Black (5th Rd)
Edge
Starters: T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith
Backups: Nick Herbig, Jack Sawyer (4th Rd)
Linebackers
Starters: Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson
Backups: Malik Harrison, Cole Holcomb, Carson Bruener (7th Rd)
Safety
Starters: Minkah Fitzpatrick, DeShon Elliott
Backups: Juan Thornhill, Miles Killebrew
Slot
Starter: Beanie Bishop
Backups: Brandin Echols
Outside CB
Starters: Joey Porter Jr., Darius Slay
Backups: James Pierre, Cory Trice Jr.
Defense Overview
Pittsburgh’s defense should be good, and could be great, though it’s hard to say how far that can take you in today’s NFL if the offense doesn’t hold up their end.
Nevertheless, the addition of first-round pick Derrick Harmon to a defensive line that already features Cam Heyward and Keeanu Benton could give the Steelers the best “down” front they’ve had since the days of Stephon Tuitt. It’s a big ask for Heyward to duplicate his throwback 2024 season, but even if he takes a slight step back, adding another potentially dominant piece beside him could make this front exceptionally difficult to run against. T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith are back as one of the NFL’s better edge duos, and the Steelers also have a quality third rusher in Nick Herbig, as well as a potential contributor in fourth round pick Jack Sawyer.
The Steelers continued to raid the Ravens’ linebacker room, adding Malik Harrison as a depth piece a year after they added Patrick Queen, which gives them a decent room when you roll in Payton Wilson and Cole Holcomb. It’s not a dominant group, however, and given the setup in the back end, that probably means the front is going to set the ceiling for this defense.
Minkah Fitzpatrick is still an impact player at safety, and DeShon Elliott is a steady player next to him, but I’m not sure there’s a bigger boom/bust factor with any corner group than Joey Porter Jr., Darius Slay, and Beanie Bishop. Porter is a big, physical corner who consistently competes, but there are games where his tendency to take defensive holding and pass interference calls single-handedly derail the group’s efforts. Slay played well in the playoffs for the Eagles last season, and was particularly active in their win against the Rams, but the 34-year-old has 12 seasons under his belt, which makes this feel a little bit like when the Steelers were trying to squeeze that last good season out of Joe Haden, or Patrick Peterson, which can be a difficult gap to thread. As for Bishop, the former undrafted free agent showed some playmaking ability in the slot as a rookie; the consistency might not have been there in his first season, but it would not surprise me to see Bishop lock that job down in 2025.
Overall Outlook
Pittsburgh doesn’t continue to post winning records by accident; as usual, they have a solid defense, and an offense that has some intriguing parts, even if it might not come together.
The dream scenario, at least from where I’m sitting, would be to find a way to tank this season, draft a quarterback, and get this thing back on track with Tomlin and the defense still intact. It would be an odd transition for Metcalf, but we just saw a similar situation play out in Tennessee, where Calvin Ridley signed on a significant extension and battled through a frustrating first season before the team landed on their franchise guy in Cam Ward.
Unfortunately, that’s a tough ask given the age of guys like Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt, and it doesn’t seem to align with their mindset. Maybe Rodgers surprises, and he does have something left in the tank a year further away from his Achilles injury, but even in the rosiest version of that picture, it’s hard to see the Steelers winning multiple playoff games in an AFC that has a solid chance of being even more competitive than it was in 2024.