Steelers have contentious choices ahead of Big Ben’s pending retirement

Trade for a replacement

This idea has floated around for most of the 2021 season. It began with the offseason feud between Aaron Rogers and the Packers. While they did reconcile for the 2021 season, many agree it will be Aaron Rodgers’s last season in Green Bay. However, he’s still under contract until 2023. Then you had Rodgers adding fuel to the rumor by talking about it on the Pat Mcafee show. Then Fox Sports did the same when analyst Jay Glazer reported that Mike Tomlin had confided he did not want a rookie quarterback after Ben Roethlisberger retired.

Tribune Live reporter Mike Benz wrote an article on this back in October. His consensus?  It’s a plausible scenario that comes down to what the Steelers would have to give up in draft picks along with potential salary cap issues considering the large contract they gave T.J.Watt at the start of the season.

Aside from Rodgers, other rumors have surfaced that Pittsburgh might trade for Russell Wilson because he’s not happy as a Seahawk and wants to leave Seattle. Where he would or could go is a matter of debate should that occur, and of course, Seattle would make anyone pay through the nose. If you have not noticed, Seattle did not have a first-round draft choice in 2021 and will not have one in 2022, barring a trade. Thus a trade for Wilson would be costly and potentially expensive, yet potentially rewarding.

However, there seem to be differing opinions that the Steelers will not opt for a trade. Jason La Canfora for CBS Sports seems to indicate the Steelers from ownership on down have placed a particular importance on securing Roethlisberger’s replacement which has come through an exhaustive evaluation of the players available in the 2022 draft. The main reason they have done so, there is no guarantee that a trade would happen. So if you follow his logic, the Steelers are set on drafting a replacement in the draft this coming April.

So if a trade is out? There is free agency.