The Pittsburgh Steelers seem to have placed all their eggs in one basket at quarterback. At this point, it looks like it’s Aaron Rodgers or bust for them. The rest of the free agent quarterback market isn’t very appealing. However, even if they finally sign Rodgers, what’s their ceiling with him? Obviously, the Steelers want to win a Super Bowl. That might be a tall task, though. Maybe they could finally win a playoff game, although analyst and Steelers fan Dave Dameshek doesn’t think that would be good enough.
“Is there a Super Bowl run in the offing if you bring in this 4[1]-year-old guy?” Dameshek asked recently on NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal. “Absolutely not, given the rest of the contenders in this. So, what is the goal? Mike Tomlin always says, ‘We don’t seek comfort.’
“This is a mild form of comfort that the head coach will gain from if he can say, ‘We went 10-7 and we won a playoff game with Aaron Rodgers.’ What that amounts to in the bigger picture is unclear to me. In fact, it’s quite clear to me it’s meaningless. It is a meaningless achievement if they win a playoff game. So, why would you do this?”
That’s an opinion that other Steelers fans likely share. Rodgers is a controversial figure. He isn’t the same player he once was, either. Asking him to come in and carry the Steelers would probably be a mistake.
It’s unlikely that the Steelers would win a Super Bowl with Rodgers. He’d probably give them their best option under center since Ben Roethlisberger, but that won’t automatically make the Steelers a contender. The AFC is loaded. The AFC North, in particular, looks to be a gauntlet. The Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals aren’t pushovers at all.
However, Rodgers is the best quarterback left available. Tomlin’s goal every year is to make the Steelers as competitive as they can be. Yes, they can’t win the Super Bowl every year, but Tomlin is going to try his best. Don’t expect the Steelers to tank while he’s around.
That leaves the Steelers in a bind. Just winning a playoff game with Rodgers might not be good enough to some fans. That’s fair. It likely also won’t be enough for Tomlin and the players. However, it’s probably better than the alternative. Just barely missing the playoffs, or losing in the first round again, would be worse.
T.J. Watt has never won a playoff game. Cam Heyward is going to be 36 years old this season. In the grand scheme of things, is winning a playoff game with Rodgers going to seriously impact the Steelers? Probably not. It would matter to those players, though. Feeling like they weren’t afterthoughts in the postseason would probably mean a lot to them.
Rodgers gives the Steelers the best chance to do that. They still need to find their next franchise quarterback, but there’s no guarantee they’ll do that even if they’re bad enough to have a top pick. Giving players like Heyward and Watt a chance to compete isn’t a bad thing.
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