The domino effect may have started with Ben Roethlisberger.
Five years later, the Steelers spent an entire offseason courting a quarterback on the wrong side of 40 who may not even be good enough to lead them to the playoffs. That's Aaron Rodgers, for those of you who have fortunately missed out on this saga by living under a rock.
The struggle traces to 2020, writes FanSided's Mark Powell, when the Steelers didn't draft a quarterback like Jalen Hurts or Jordan Love because they were still committed to an aging Roethlisberger.
"Rather than selecting a quarterback with a first-round grade in 2020, the Steelers reached for Kenny Pickett in 2022," Powell writes. "That experiment failed miserably, as Pickett was eventually traded to Philadelphia. Outside of Pickett, the Steelers have taken chances on Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson and now Rodgers. The first two experiments didn't work out. Are we really expected to believe in Rodgers?"
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The Athletic's Mike DeFabo has compared this situation to Roethlisberger's final season, and he sees potential for it to be rough.
"When Roethlisberger returned in 2020, everyone knew he wasn’t the same," DeFabo wrote. "But the Steelers convinced themselves he wouldn’t need to be, with a now-complete defense supporting him. If T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward and Fitzpatrick could nearly lift Duck Hodges to the playoffs, what could they do with Big Ben?...It was fool’s gold."
This isn't the perfect train of thought, only because the Packers with Rodgers showed the alternative.
That same year, Green Bay drafted Love, even before Rodgers went on to play like an MVP for a couple of seasons. Now, the Packers are reaping the benefits in their next era of QB play.
The Steelers didn't have to overlook quarterbacks because they had Roethlisberger. But if he's the reason they didn't pursue the position then, it hasn't aged as a particularly sound decision.
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