Following the Steelers' 9-3 loss to the Bills last Saturday, the national sports media have taken turns dunking on the team. Everyone from Russell Wilson to Justin Fields to Arthur Smith to Mike Tomlin has found themselves taking heat from the national media after a pitiful offensive performance where the Steelers only mustered one field goal.
However, one analyst took that criticism a bit too far.
On August 21, Mike Tannenbaum, a former general manager of the New York Jets and current ESPN football analyst, had an interesting take on what the Steelers should do with their quarterback position when he said this on ESPN's "Get Up" Wednesday morning:
.@realtannenbaum thinks the Steelers should trade Russell Wilson to the Vikings and sign Ryan Tannehill 😯
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) August 21, 2024
“A win-win here is to trade Russell Wilson to Minnesota. I think he’s a better quarterback than Sam Darnold. They certainly can battle it out.” pic.twitter.com/wfpAkerqlt
Tannenbaum suggests the Steelers should trade Russell Wilson to the Vikings, who recently lost rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy for the season with a knee injury. In Wilson's place, the ESPN analysts said Pittsburgh should sign Ryan Tannehill.
Mike Tannenbaum's trade proposal for Steelers is nonsensical
This trade suggestion is completely laughable and nonsensical for numerous reasons.
First, why would a team trade their starting quarterback two weeks before the season starts and sign someone who hasn't been on a team all offseason and expect that player to learn the playbook and potentially play in two weeks? Forget about your opinion on Russell Wilson and just think about how little sense that actually makes.
Secondly, this is just a massive overreaction to one preseason game. I think all of the criticism from this week has been overblown because we're talking about a glorified practice. In the words of NBA great Allen Iverson: "We talking about practice". Russell Wilson missed a majority of training camp with a calf injury and only got one week of practice before that Bills game. Yeah, he's going to be a bit rusty.
I think the Steelers' offensive problems stem more from the offensive line stinking up Acrisure Stadium on Saturday and less from the play of the quarterbacks. But offensive linemen don't make headlines; quarterbacks do.
My advice to Steelers fans is to just completely ignore these trolls because the only reason they're saying this stuff on live TV is to drum up anger and engagement from one of the largest fanbases in the world.
If you're a Steelers fan, don't give them that satisfaction. We understand that it's just the preseason and that the Steelers will hopefully get these things ironed out before they take the field in Atlanta in a few weeks. That's what ultimately matters, not some preseason game in mid-August.
As for Tannenbaum, I think we all see why he's no longer working in the NFL. This is the same guy who told the Steelers to bench Ben Roethlisberger in his final season in Pittsburgh. I don't take his opinion on the NFL very seriously, especially after his comments this morning. It's probably going to be a while, if ever, before Tannenbaum finds himself back in the NFL following his laughable trade idea.
The Steelers need a good offensive performance this Saturday in Detroit or we're all going to be subjected to this talk for another week.