PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – We’ve seen the Steelers do things they hadn’t done traditionally. They traded a first-round pick. They wiped out a whole quarterback room and started over. They were in talks for a big-money free agent. A former NFL GM believes they need to do that with their offense and quarterback future.
“In the end you have to evolve,” said former Bills general manager Doug Whaley on the Fan Morning Show. “If we didn’t evolve we’d still be using rotary phones. If we didn’t evolve we would have faster horses instead of automobiles.”
It’s the same with the Steelers offense, they are living in a world where they believe a strong, traditional running game and strong defense wins the day. That’s not how you win currently in the league.
You still need to run the ball, the top six rushing teams in the league made the playoffs. It’s more how you do it. Of the top 13 rushing quarterbacks in the game, eight made the playoffs. Only Jared Goff, Matthew Stafford and Jordan Love didn’t run the ball and made the postseason.
Only Goff and Love were in the top dozen in scoring offense while barely running the ball. Mobile quarterbacks, with innovative schemes, score points and win football games with only a pair of outliers.
“Today’s NFL, you have to score points,” Whaley said. “Even the highest paid defense (which the Steelers are by a wide margin) and a defense that at times looked dominant, can’t be dominant (defense) 17 weeks with the ways the rules are and the way offenses are played now. It’s just not happening. You have to adjust your mindset, you have to.”
Whaley said he understands that the Steelers are playing small ball right now because they don’t have that dynamic quarterback who can light up a scoreboard.
So, what is the plan to find that quarterback?
What the former NFL general manager said during his weekly segment on the Fan Morning Show is internally the Steelers have to be determining where the next great quarterback is. Could it be in free agency? Is it buried on another team’s roster where you could make a trade? Is it in the NFL Draft?
If you decide you need to draft a quarterback, right now you have to figure out which of the next two to three years have the best quarterback class. Then you have to provide yourself the most flexibility to be able to go and get that quarterback. Whaley said this isn’t the year to find that player, there are only two to three potentially impactful quarterbacks in this 2025 draft class.
There has a be a draft where there are multiple potential star QBs, a handful of those players.
If you identify you can find that quarterback in 2026, then you need to spend this year putting yourself in the best position to draft that player. Whaley suggested trading George Pickens this year for draft capital, finding a way to trade down in the first round to acquire future picks.
Sacrifice your chance to win in 2025 to find the player who can take you to the next level and get you back to a championship team again.
After you find that player, it’s up to the Steelers to change their philosophy. To be aggressive in their play calling, to have the mindset of going down swinging. As Whaley put it you can still win games with defense, but you can’t win championships with a team top-heavy on defense.
The Steelers proudly tell you their goal every year is to win a championship. In 2025, the goal should be to find that franchise quarterback or prepare yourself for that day. Trying to continue to piece it together is only going to lead to more January heartache.