A 5-step guide to a quick and successful Steelers rebuild

Steelers fifth step: Keep an eye out for 2023

While I have mentioned this multiple times throughout this post, any move the Steelers make in 2022 should be geared towards success in 2023. Given how many holes the team has on the roster, there is almost no shot that Pittsburgh is competitive in 2022. That means rookies and free agents that are added should be added with their fit with the team in the future in mind.

This doesn’t mean the rookie class won’t play. In fact, the Steelers should see their 2022 rookies get a plethora of work as has the 2021 class. It won’t yield immediate results, but it will allow for the young players to get a lot of experience in their first year and set them up for better success in the future. The goal should be to have a young and upcoming roster by 2023.

Once that offseason hits, the focus then comes to filling in those remaining holes. The team should, in theory, be flush with cap space so the focus would be on filling the holes that were left. Those needs wouldn’t be determined until that offseason, but reasonably spending whatever cap space the team has would prepare them for the final stretch in their rebuild.

Assuming most of the holes are filled, the entire draft should be focused on finding the next quarterback. The draft pick earned from a lackluster 2022 would likely be a top-15 pick, which would put them in a good spot to take a quarterback. Even if it required a trade-up, having a pick that high would mean the draft capital to move up wouldn’t be as bad. This means, by the end of the 2023 draft, the team should be back in a position to be competitive.

A rebuild is always nice in theory, but it has proven to be an extremely hard thing for most teams. It requires good free agency classes and even better draft classes in order to complete. That said, this basic blueprint is a good start for what the Steelers could do once they decide to officially begin their rebuild in 2022.