The dead part of the NFL calendar is made for exactly this kind of Pittsburgh Steelers debate. There are no practices, no games, no real news. Just a bunch of alternative thinking that makes fans wonder how different this team could look if one pick, trade, or decision had gone the other way.
Hindsight is 20/20, but many of these scenarios seemed like real possibilities at one time or another.
With that being said, here are some of the top what-ifs in recent Steelers history.
Pittsburgh Steelers 'what-ifs' that still hurt
Creed Humphrey
What hurts so much about this one is that it was avoidable. The Steelers had multiple cracks at Creed Humphrey in the 2021 NFL Draft and passed. They took Najee Harris in the first round, Pat Freiermuth in the second, and eventually landed Kendrick Green in the third.
Humphrey became one of the NFL’s best centers almost immediately. Pittsburgh eventually found Zach Frazier, but the Humphrey miss delayed the offensive line rebuild at the worst possible time.
Troy Polamalu
This isn’t about whether the Steelers should’ve drafted Troy Polamalu. Obviously, they should’ve. The fun what-if is what Polamalu would look like in today’s NFL. He probably wouldn’t have the same free-roaming role he had under Dick LeBeau, but he’d still be a nightmare for offenses.
Think box safety, slot defender, nickel linebacker, and chaos agent all rolled into one. The league has changed, but players like Polamalu don’t really go out of style.
Darnell Washington
The Darnell Washington what-if is weird in the best way. What if the Steelers had moved him to offensive tackle as a rookie? He has the size, length, and blocking ability to make the idea at least believable.
Maybe he becomes a massive swing tackle. Maybe he develops into a starter. Or maybe Pittsburgh loses the thing that makes him so unusual at tight end. Either way, it’s the kind of thought experiment that makes Washington one of the most fascinating players on the roster.
Minkah Fitzpatrick
The Minkah Fitzpatrick trade worked. Nobody’s denying that. But in hindsight, it is what it may have cost the Steelers. Fitzpatrick helped rescue an 8-8 season after Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow injury, which also meant Pittsburgh didn’t have its first-round pick in a loaded 2020 draft.
Justin Herbert, CeeDee Lamb, Tristan Wirfs, and Jordan Love all become part of the debate. Fitzpatrick was great, but the alternate path is hard to shake.
Jalen Hurts
The Steelers still had a chance to address the quarterback position in 2020 when Jalen Hurts was available in the second round. They took Chase Claypool instead (gulp!). While the Steelers' version might not have been so clean, considering the difference in coaching staff and roster, Hurts became a Super Bowl-winning quarterback in Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh’s offensive setup wasn’t built to develop him the way the Eagles did, but even a flawed Hurts timeline may have spared them some of the post-Roethlisberger quarterback hodgepodge.
Kenny Pickett
The Kenny Pickett what-if is really tied to Kevin Colbert. What if Colbert had retired one year earlier? Would Omar Khan and Andy Weidl have forced a quarterback pick in a weak 2022 class? Maybe not. Maybe the Steelers build the line sooner, maybe they take a different swing later.
No matter how you slice it, though, Pickett’s short run in Pittsburgh still feels like a decision made out of timing, need and old front-office pressure.
Ben Roethlisberger
The biggest one is still Roethlisberger. In the 2010 offseason, the Steelers made serious attempts to trade Big Ben following a series of off-field controversies and a suspension for violating the NFL's personal-conduct policy.
What if the Steelers had traded him? They already had two Super Bowl wins, but they would’ve been stepping straight into quarterback purgatory. Sam Bradford, Jimmy Clausen or some veteran stopgap could’ve become part of the plan. The Steelers may have lived their current QB problem 10 years earlier, only without the extra decade of Roethlisberger.
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