The Steelers have constructed their organization on the philosophy of building through the NFL Draft. It’s been that way for the past 50 years, and how can you argue their success over the time frame? No team has more wins than the Steelers since the 1970 merger, which just happened to be a few years after the team decided to embrace the college entry draft.
The Steelers will have one of their busiest drafts in almost a decade as they’ve accrued 10 picks, including four in the first 83 picks. That number of selections will allow the Steelers to either load up on top-end talent and depth or package some of them in order to move up from their 20th-overall slot into range to draft a much-coveted inside linebacker.
The draft is April 25-27 in Nashville and the Steelers own the 20th overall pick in the first round along with nine other picks: One in the second round (52), two in the third round (66 and 83), one in the fourth round (122), one on the fifth (141), three in the sixth (175, 192, 207) and one in the seventh (219).
This look at the quarterbacks is the third in a 10-part series of breaking down the draft and what it means for the Steelers:
The situation: Nothing to see here
When your general manager comes out and refers to you as the “unquestioned leader,” Ben Roethlisberger pretty much knows his standing with the Steelers even at the ripe old age of 37.
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After a tumultuous couple of months that saw the departures of Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, the Steelers have gone all in with Roethlisberger even though he is one of the oldest quarterbacks in the league.
Kevin Colbert made it known that Roethlisberger is the face of the team.
“The one thing when we look at our roster, you look at the age, who’s been wherever they’ve been, whatever level they’ve played at as far as playoffs, we only have one player that has been a Super Bowl winner,” Colbert said to a select group of beat writers a couple months back. “As the quarterback and as that Super Bowl participant, it’s a big burden for him. It really is.”
Roethlisberger is entering the final year of his contract. The two sides are currently working on an extension, but there has been a slight delay in the completion of the deal. Regardless, the contract will get buttoned up sooner rather than later and will likely be a three-year deal that will take him through the 2021 season.
The question remains can Roethlisberger continue to play like a top-five quarterback? He had career highs in completions (452), attempts (675) and led the league in yards (5,129) while throwing 34 touchdowns and 16 picks — four of which came in the red zone.
But what the Steelers have to worry about is if a sharp decline in play is imminent as it was with some of the best who ever played. The best example of that was Peyton Manning, who rewrote the record books in 2013 as a 37-year-old but fell off the cliff a year later when four neck surgeries finally caught up to him. By 2015 he couldn’t throw but still was able to win a Super Bowl.
Once unheard of, quarterbacks are playing at, or near 40 at a high level. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning are all either 40 or pushing 40. Brett Favre and Warren Moon lasted until 40 before a precipitous drop-off.
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Roethlisberger shows no signs of that. He dedicated himself in the offseason a year ago to get into better shape, came into camp a noticeably slimmer 25o pounds, and it paid off.
His arm is still active, his offensive line that kept him upright the past couple seasons is still mostly intact, and he has been quite healthy having only missed five games due to injury over the past six seasons. Four of those came after a severe knee injury against the Rams in 2015.
Where they still may have an issue is in the backup role. They drafted quarterbacks in back-to-back years, selecting Josh Dobbs in the fourth round two years ago and Mason Rudolph in the third round last year. The Steelers were impressed enough with Dobbs’ preseason work that he surprisingly beat out Landry Jones for the backup spot.
Dobbs did fill in for Roethlisberger for one play against the Jaguars and zipped a 22-yard completion to JuJu Smith-Schuster which moved the chains, but didn’t do as well in Oakland when he was called on in the X-ray debacle game.
Dobbs was under center for four drives, managed only 18 plays and 53 yards while turning it over on downs once and fumbling another time before getting yanked. Rudolph never dressed for a game and didn’t have much in the way of reps after training camp.
With no quarterback coach on the staff and the backup snaps going to Dobbs, Rudolph had to rely on the new technology of virtual reality. Both aren’t ready to take over, but they won’t have to unless a season-ending injury happens to Roethlisberger.
Dobbs is signed through 2020 and Rudolph 2021, so the Steelers aren’t going to discard either one yet, that’s for sure. After the first round of this draft, the rest of the quarterbacks are mid-round guys, which would be useless for the Steelers.
The prospects: Not deep but impactful
The pursuit of a potential franchise quarterback can make teams think irrationally when the clock starts to roll in the draft. It happens almost every year in the first round.
- Paxton Lynch to the Broncos with the 26th overall pick in 2016.
- Blake Bortles to the Jaguars with the third overall and Johnny Manziel with the 22nd overall to the Browns in 2014.
- E.J. Manuel to the Bills with the 15th overall in 2013.
- Brandon Weeden to the Browns with the 22nd overall pick in 2012.
- Jake Locker (Titans), Blaine Gabbert (Jaguars) and Christian Ponder (Vikings) with the eighth, 10th and 12th picks, respectively, in 2011.
- Tim Tebow to the Broncos with the 25th overall in 2010.
- Josh Freeman to the Bucs with the 17th pick in 2009.
All were colossal failures.
And that was just the past decade alone. But one thing is for sure — a team will reach for a quarterback in the first round of this year’s draft that will impact the rest of the round. Players will fall, and teams will have no choice to pick a player they once thought they never had a chance of drafting.
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In 2012, the Steelers felt they had no chance at Stanford guard David DeCastro. However, when there were four quarterbacks taken in the first 22 picks, including Weeden two picks ahead of them, DeCastro fell into the Steelers’ lap. DeCastro is now the best guard in the NFL.
While Kyler Murray likely will be the first pick this year (whether it is by the Cardinals or a team moving up is yet to be known) and Dwayne Haskins likely be gone within the first 10 picks, it’s what happens over the next few picks that could alter the draft significantly.
Missouri’s Drew Lock and Duke’s Daniel Jones could fall into that “we really need a quarterback” dilemma that teams deal with every year. Lock is a solid pick but a franchise quarterback he’s likely not. The same can be said about Jones, who some mock drafts have penciled in somewhere in the bottom third of the first round.
There’s no question with the top two quarterbacks unlike a year ago when four went in the first 10 picks, and it wasn’t leaked until late that Baker Mayfield was going to be selected by the Browns first overall.
This year, Murray and Haskins will be gone within the first hour of the draft.
Murray (4,361 yards, 42 touchdowns) has it all — arm, smarts and the ability to make plays with his feet both running and extending plays. Only a one-year starter at Oklahoma, Murray passed over a $4.66 million signing bonus to play baseball for the Oakland A’s. If Murray is the first pick at the end of the month, he will receive in the neighborhood of $24 million in a guaranteed signing bonus.
“Kyler can make every single throw,” NFL.com draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said. “He can drive the ball. Those ‘hole’ shots against cover-two on the sideline between the corner and the safety, that’s big-boy throws. He makes those effortlessly. So he’s got plenty of arm strength. I’ve seen him work through progressions.”
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Haskins could be a better pro. A prototypical dropback passer, Haskins started one year at Ohio State and threw 50 touchdowns.
“Really turned it on late in the year, which was good to see,” Jeremiah said. “The concern a little bit there was just the immobility, being able to kind of get himself out of trouble if he gets under some heat, being able to move off of his spot and be consistent and be accurate. That was my concern with him.”
Top-five prospects
1. Kyler Murray, Oklahoma, 5-foot-10, 207 pounds — A little undersized for a quarterback but has made up for that by being able to do everything a bigger quarterback can do and much more. Likely the first overall pick.
2. Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State, 6-foot-3, 231 pounds — A classic dropback passer with a cannon for an arm. Could ultimately be the best pro player in the group.
3. Drew Lock, Missouri, 6-foot-4, 228 pounds — Unlike Haskins and Murray, Lock has a tremendous amount of experience (46 starts) and a proven track record with more 12,000 yards and 99 touchdowns during his three years starting.
4. Daniel Jones, Duke, 6-foot-5, 221 pounds — Many thought the redshirt junior would stay around another year but could find himself in the late first round as teams love his size and his potential.
5. Will Grier, West Virginia, 6-foot-2, 217 pounds — A Baker Mayfield-like attitude has the fearless Grier climbing up some team’s boards. He finished fourth in the Heisman voting a year ago.
The call: Don’t even go there
Roethlisberger has yet to sign his extension, but that’s just a matter of time. He will likely play for at least three more years if not more. They really don’t know what they have with Dobbs and Rudolph.
The Steelers are happy enough with Dobbs to make him the backup a year ago, and they aren’t about to discard Rudolph, who didn’t dress for a game as a rookie and was relegated to taking reps via a virtual reality machine.
Maybe you consider somebody if they would fall, but it would have to a sure-bet franchise player, which won’t happen. After the first three or four taken off the board, the only thing left is a series of Dobbs- and Rudolph-like mid-rounders.
And the Steelers already have two of those so it should and will be a hard pass at quarterback for the Steelers this year.
After all, Ben Roethlisberger is the unquestioned leader of the team now and for the foreseeable future.
The series: What’s next?
I’ll be previewing the draft leading up to the first pick on April 25. Here’s the schedule for the rest of the way (previous articles can be clicked on for easy navigation):
- April 2: Mock draft
- April 3: Wide receivers
- April 5: Tight ends
- April 8: Quarterbacks
- April 9: Running backs
- April 10: Offensive linemen
- April 12: Inside linebackers
- April 15: Outside linebackers
- April 17: Safeties
- April 19: Cornerbacks
- April 22: Defensive linemen
- April 24: Mark Kaboly’s analysis/pick
(Top photo: Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)