If you were hoping the Pittsburgh Steelers would improve their quarterback situation in 2025, you might want to shield your eyes after the latest rumor. Going from a lackluster combination of Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph to Russell Wilson and Justin Fields was a notable improvement on paper. Sadly, this combination still wasn't good enough to muster up a playoff win.
Now we could be entering last-resort territory at the quarterback position.
On February 18, Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 The Fan suggested that the Steelers could be interested in former Giants and Vikings quarterback Daniel Jones.
"[The Steelers] could do a lot worse than Jones," Filipponi posted on X, quoting from his source.
This is the last thing every fan wanted to see.
Steelers must do better (or worse) than Daniel Jones
There are plenty of Steelers fans who would be fine bringing in Daniel Jones as a backup quarterback, but if the plan is for him to lead this team as a starter in 2025, this would bring next-level mediocrity to Pittsburgh. Jones, a former first-round pick of the Giants, has been underwhelming each of his past five seasons in New York—never managing more than passing touchdowns in a season since his rookie campaign.
Jones has a career record of 22-44-1 and led his team to a 3-13 record when starting each of the past two seasons before finally getting released by the Giants and signing with the Vikings as a reserve QB late in the 2024 season.
It gets worse. Jones—an uber-conservative quarterback by nature—has thrown a mere 10 touchdown passes while chipping in 13 interceptions since the 2022 season, and his adjusted yards per attempt have not exceeded 5.62 since 2022.
With a lack of big-play ability, Jones is the definition of a game manager. The Steelers must do better, and while there aren't a variety of options to pick from, Pittsburgh would be better off running it back with Justin Fields or Russell Wilson in 2025 if Jones was the only other option.
Jones' lack of aggressiveness would also feed into Mike Tomlin's conservative game plan—making this team just good enough to earn another .500 record while once again falling short in the postseason.
If they don't get better at quarterback, the Steelers would benefit from a more polarizing player like Zach Wilson or Trey Lance. At least rolling with one of these QBs could offer more excitement and could result in bottoming out—allowing Pittsburgh to select a quarterback high in the 2026 NFL Draft.
We all witnessed how many years the Cincinnati Bengals were in quarterback limbo with Andy Dalton at the helm and Daniel Jones is cut from the same cloth. Unless the Pittsburgh Steelers bring Jones on as a backup only, fans should want no part of this nightmare scenario at QB in 2025.