History of the position: Steelers quarterbacks

The Pittsburgh Steelers are a storied franchise and one of the most successful in NFL history. They began as the Pittsburgh Pirates after their founding in 1933 and changed to the Steelers in 1939 from a fan contest to name the team.

With that old of a franchise, there are many different players and coaches, these articles will look at these former Steelers by position from each decade. The Steelers joined the league as an expansion team and were beyond terrible, to begin with then they began to become competitive the more the NFL changed to a more throw heavy league in the 1970s and more into the modern powered offense.

When the Steelers joined the league as the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1939, the Quarterback position was not nearly as important as it is today. The modern-day, pass-happy league, was something that did not exist during the earlier days of football. The name of the game as far as football went was running. Being able to establish your run game would provide your team with the majority of its offense.

As time went on the Quarterback position and the passing attack for offenses began to develop into very important parts of the league. Quarterbacks became more important not only for their ability to throw the football but also their ability to run offenses and be the field general for offenses across the NFL. Defenses would have to find more ways to stop these newly forged offenses that now could attack you with the run game, but also a new passing ability as well.