Trade options the Pittsburgh Steelers have to consider before the deadline

Don’t stare at this picture too long, I am not proposing a trade for Tom Brady. That won’t happen.

I already wrote a piece involving the Pittsburgh Steelers trading for either Sam Darnold or Dwayne Haskins. So I am not going to repeat myself. Instead, I am going to explore the prospect of trading for Josh Rosen. Firstly, Josh Rosen has not been given a good chance to succeed in the NFL. Arizona’s offensive line was atrocious during his time there and Miami’s offensive line is just so-so at best. Without a consistent run game for Miami, and not nearly the level of talent in the receiving area I was not surprised to see the Dolphins opt for Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2019 in hopes of having a man who is known for slinging it deep to give you a shot to win games. With two defensive-minded head coaches at the helm and not a good environment around him, Josh Rosen has done very little to live up to his high draft status.

He is currently signed for the league minimum in Tampa Bay and the Steelers would have to sign him to an extension. However, I have serious doubts about Ben’s return post-2020, especially if they win the Super Bowl and that looks likely at this point. Josh looked like the best quarterback of his draft class coming in and I am not convinced he would be better than Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, or Lamar Jackson in talent. Yet, he is still a better arm talent than Jackson, and furthermore, with the right team, he could have a better career than the other two.

Nearly every successful quarterback in the league is a system quarterback and I don’t care what anyone says. Jackson would not have won an MVP this early without a system tailored to his strengths. Josh Allen showed the potential and Buffalo started building around him and now he looks great. Sam Darnold is probably going to be the best quarterback in that draft class in the long term. Right now, aside from Josh Rosen, he is having the least amount of success with no offensive line, weapons, or even a decent game plan tailored towards his strengths.

Thanks to the play of Brady and the rest of the Buccaneers Josh Rosen is going to have a better record than Darnold without even playing a snap this season barring injury.  I think that the change in Pittsburgh’s offense using a lot of motion and the short passing gameplays to Rosen’s strengths.

He is someone the Steelers could probably get decently cheap with selling a backup quarterback to the Buccaneers and possibly a late-round draft pick. He is worth looking at in this offense at such a low cost because of his tremendous upside and he could end up being the future post-Ben Roethlisberger.

I propose the Pittsburgh Steelers offer the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Mason Rudolph and a 5th round draft pick in exchange for Josh Rosen. Pittsburgh gets a close look at a legitimate option to replace Ben when he retires and the Buccaneers get something for the league minimum while keeping a valid back-up quarterback behind Tom Brady who still wishes to play to the age of 45.