As the 2020 NFL Draft quickly approaches, the Pittsburgh Steelers likely won’t be using any picks on a potential replacement for Ben Roethlisberger until next year.
Since 2004, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been rolling with Ben Roethlisberger as their starting quarterback. It’s resulted in two Super Bowl victories, so it’s hard to argue against the Steelers decision to continue on with Roethlisberger under center for the last 16 years.
Now at the age of 38 and coming off a season in which he only appeared in two games thanks to a serious elbow injury, some are beginning to wonder when Pittsburgh will look to find their quarterback of the future.
Well, it doesn’t sound like the Steelers are interested in using one of their picks in this year’s NFL Draft on a new signal-caller.
The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly recently reported that Pittsburgh is, “all in,” with Roethlisberger for the next two seasons and the Associated Press’ Will Graves also reported that the team is, “comfortable,” with Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges as their backups for 2020.
These reports led Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski to believe that the Steelers likely won’t be looking to add a new quarterback to their roster until 2021 at the earliest.
While this might be disappointing for some Pittsburgh fans who were hoping their team would go after one of the top young passers in this year’s draft, it also shouldn’t be too surprising.
The Steelers have remained loyal to Roethlisberger during his entire career and that’s not about to change. Unless he ends up having a negative impact on Pittsburgh’s chances for success during the next two seasons, the team is going to give their veteran quarterback the opportunity to leave the game on his own terms.
Now, is this the correct approach to take? Some would say it isn’t, but this is the decision the Steelers are rolling with and they will have to figure out how to get back to the playoffs with Roethlisberger as their starter.
There’s still a small chance that this could all be a giant smokescreen being put out by the Steelers and they could end up using their first pick in next week’s NFL Draft on a new quarterback. But again, these chances appear to be quite small.