5 moves Steelers must make to ensure future success

The Pittsburgh Steelers were at a loss in the first round of the 2020 playoffs.

It was a terrible ending to an otherwise great season for the Steelers. Unfortunately now is the time to reload. There are already rumors on players’ retirements, coaches not being resigned, and ideas of who the Steelers should draft. Yet there are 5 moves I would make if I am the GM for the Steelers. It is scary to think Colbert could be contemplating an offer to be Detroit’s GM, but Omar Khan knows what he is doing should Colbert not come back to the black and gold.

The Steelers have to find themselves a quarterback now.

Ben is going to retire a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer at this point in his career. The question isn’t if he is going to retire, but when. My bet is that after such a horrible first-round exit, and his best friend reportedly leaning towards retirement that Ben hangs it up this year.

That leaves the Steelers without a good option to start in the coming years as I have failed to see enough from Mason Rudolph to think he could be the future. Rudolph did play well in Week 17, yet it was a much too small sample size for me to bank my future on him for the next two seasons. So who are some fresh quarterbacks to contemplate for the Steelers to start in 2021 in beyond? I’d say Dwayne Haskins or Kyle Trask as my top two.

Pros and cons for Haskins

Haskins would provide a tad more NFL experience for the Steelers and he also has the stronger arm. They could sign him for cheap now, as he was just released from the Washington Football team. This would allow the Steelers the chance to utilize the little draft capital they do have, in more efficient ways. With the value of the QB position, it is safe to say they would get a better left-tackle or center with the 24th pick of the draft than a QB at the 24th pick of the draft.

The downside is that the confidence that Haskins has must be down at the moment. The Steelers must buy into Haskins fully, unlike what Washington did to him, and as a result, would have to change up their offense a little bit. They would have to open up the play calling and allow for more of a deep-ball, all or nothing passing attack to utilize the big arm Haskins has. However, Pittsburgh would have the type of defense that can make up for the turnovers that type of offense would likely produce.

Pros and cons for Trask

Trask would be a blank slate without bad habits that the Steelers would have to worry about. I think that he would be the perfect fit for the pre-snap motion paired with a short passing attack that Matt Canada is slowly trying to implement even as just the quarterback’s coach. With reports indicating that Fichtner is done in Pittsburgh, Canada could have the keys to the offense as early as next season, and Trask would be the perfect QB for this system. Trask has elite ball placement that would have made him more successful on a lot of these shorter throws in which Ben failed to throw his receiver open through a lot of this season.

My problems with Trask come from him not having as strong of an arm as a lot of NFL quarterbacks. He can also be a little slow in some of his progressions and he is not mobile in the slightest. I don’t think that would be a huge issue as he has shown the willingness to stay tall in the pocket and take the hit when he has to. The biggest problem with taking Trask is that he is still a bit of a gamble. With the Steelers having multiple positions of need, the first-round pick could potentially yield a much bigger impact on another position to help boost a free agent prospect like Haskins.