DeFabo: Steelers 22025 QB Will Be There For Just One Season

Mike, how are you, man?

Hey, I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on the show. Before we get to the main event, and of course always a pleasure, before we get to Aaron Rodgers, what are your thoughts on DK Metcalfe and Pickens being in the same space at the same time on a consistent basis? Traditionally, the Steelers, if a guy like George Pickens produces on the field the way that Pickens did, it would be a no-brainer decision. The Steelers would lock him up before he could even enter his final year of his rookie contract, make sure he's a Steeler long-term. But, as we know, Pickens comes with some baggage and on-field kind of situations. He had the always blanking open eye black. Later in the season, Mike Tomlin came out and said he needs to grow up.

Very next game in which he was active, he reported late to that game against the Chiefs. So there's a lot of things going on there with George Pickens. So my real question is, is this step one and maybe there's another shoe that's going to drop here? And I think what it does is it really puts the Steelers in a position of power, where if you get the quarterback that you like, you want to go for it with two great deep threats with DK Metcalfe and George Pickens, you can do that. But, at the same time, if you don't get the quarterback or you decide, you know what, George Pickens is more trouble than he's worth at this point, let's cut bait, let's try to get a draft pick, you now have the flexibility to do that because you have a legitimate number one star receiver on your hands with DK.

So I think it was a wise move, and now really my question is kind of like, what's the ripple effect from it? Mike DeFable here with us from The Athletic. When you think about all the draft picks that the Steelers already possess and have, does that work in their favor to get another solid wide receiver in if they should move off from Pickens? Well I think what would be interesting really is if you were able to get let's say a second round pick back for George Pickens, and then you could get a guy in the first round like Emeka Ibuka. I know the Steelers are interested in him out of Ohio State, and stylistically I think that would be a nice match where you've got the big body, big play threat with DK, and then a guy in Ibuka who can work those underneath routes and more of that possession type of receiver. So I just think that with the Steelers they've taken maybe like the long game type of approach to this point through Omar Khan's first two drafts, they've loaded up on offensive linemen, they've tried to restock the defensive line. So I think if you're thinking long term, getting that pick back may be better than playing out the string with George Pickens and losing him for nothing at the end of the year. Well Mike we learned about an hour ago that it appears that Najee Harris after year after year after year racking up a thousand yards that he might be on his way to the Chargers. What is the Steelers thought process in potentially replacing him?

Yeah, you know, you look at what they've done today. Today they put a second round tender on Jalen Warren, and you have three options with the tenders. There's a first round tender, there's a second round tender, then there's a right of first refusal. Really the Steelers had to decide between right of first refusal or second round, and they chose to pay Jalen the second round, which has a bigger price tag, but it also means you're going to keep him. And that tells you that that was a priority player for the Steelers. And even at the end of last season, you saw the Steelers start to shift, even before the end of Najee Harris' tenure, two more Jalen Warren.

He actually out snapped and now carried Najee during the final couple games of the season. So the way I look at it, they're probably going to have Jalen as one of the backs, and then I very much think that they're in contention to draft a running back. And I think that probably you're looking at a day two, early day three pick. You know, I know that they have their top 30 visits coming in, and among those they've got a lot of defensive tackles coming in. They had a lot of wide receivers, and then the third position they were really looking at is running back. So, you know, somewhere within those top three or four rounds, I would very much expect the Steelers to draft a running back. Mike DeFabo is here, covers the Steelers for the athletic. We know the big story is Justin Fields moving on.

Russell Wilson is still available, and then Aaron Rodgers also lurks out there, eligible to sign with any team that would want him if they can come to an agreement. First of all, why didn't a deal get done with Justin Fields? I assume it was the price and a commitment, no?

Right. And I mean, Justin also had a say in this. So, it was interesting because Art Rooney, the owner of the team, came out right after the season and said, I would prefer to re-sign one of the guys that we currently have.

Well, it became clear as this process unfolded that really it wasn't one of those two guys. It wasn't Russ or Justin. It was Justin was the priority. And for that reason, when you consider this is an underwhelming draft class and the Steelers probably aren't going to be in range to draft a top guy, the other free agent options, like none of those are very appealing either.

I thought that they would really make a strong effort to keep Justin, but because of the fact that they let this string out, they waited until the final, like basically the 11th hour to try to get something done, that gave other teams the opportunity to talk with Justin. And I think that he wanted to get the most value that he possibly could, because he's in a very different situation than Russell Wilson, for example. Russ has made more than $300 million in his career.

I mean, the hay's in the barn with him. But when you come to Justin Fields, he's just coming off of his rookie contract. He still needs to make his money in this league. Not to mention, he went four and two as the starter and Mike Tomlin turned away from him. That had to be in the back of his mind thinking, how soon are they going to pivot away from me if they were looking for the first opportunity to turn back to Russ last time? So I think all those factors, the money, Justin trying to get his, and then the Steelers maybe being unwilling to meet his demands, and then maybe the sour case in Justin's mouth after last year, all those things led to a breakup and him ultimately going to the Jets. And now the Steelers spinning their wheels and left with kind of the scraps and the leftovers of what was already an uninspiring quarterback class in free agency. Well, when you think about Russell Wilson, we saw how things ended with the Steelers. He's still available. He can return back to the Steelers.

And then there's Aaron Rodgers. Why haven't the Steelers jumped at Russell Wilson? Have they seen enough of him at the end of last year? And what are your thoughts on their options? Are we going to get one of these two guys in?

Yeah, I can tell you what I know there. And that's really what they did with Russell Wilson, kind of stringing him along and using his leverage. And, you know, for as much as they publicly said not only Art Rooney coming out and saying it was either going to be Russ or Justin, but then also at the combine, General Manager Omar Khan came out and also said it was probably going to be either Russ or Justin. Those public comments do not mirror the way that they have treated Russ at the negotiating table.

And if it truly was that, then they would be right now signing the contract with Russ. Instead, what I think is it seems like they would prefer Aaron Rodgers, but they need to first see what does Aaron Rodgers want? And Aaron Rodgers has some options. So is Aaron Rodgers going to go to the Giants? And then at that point, maybe the Steelers get their option number three with Russ.

Or is Aaron Rodgers, who we know has respect for Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin has respect for him. They've kind of been flirting with the notion that the two of them could be connected for a couple of years now. Does that does that finally materialize this year? We'll have to see.

If I were to guess and it's just an educated guess at this point, I think that that would be the way this is going to go. But really, with all the twists and turns, and especially after the way the last year unfolded with the Steelers getting two quarterbacks unexpectedly, really until they have somebody in the building signed to a contract, I don't think anybody can say with certainty who the quarterback is going to be. Mike DeFabo is here with us covers the Steelers for the athletic. Now, given the options that are right there, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers, I saw you share some interesting information about who's better.

Who do you think would be the best fit before the Steelers to be competitive and hopefully try to win something next year? Yeah, I mean, when you look at the stats that I shared online and you can follow me on Twitter at Mike DeFabo, I have a lot of that information that I shared out there. Russ was the better quarterback in a lot of those metrics. And, you know, you look at passer ratings, Russ was better. EPA per attempt, Russ was better. QBR, Russ was better. TD per interception.

So, we can go on and on. Really, what it was is Russ was more efficient as a passer. He was more of a big play kind of guy using that patented moon ball to connect with George Pickens. But he also took a lot of sacks. He was one of the sack quarterbacks in the league.

Do you want that or do you want the quarterback who's 41 years old and Aaron Rodgers? And he was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league against the Blitz. And what they tried to do with the Jets was do a lot of rhythm passing, precision passing. And I don't know that necessarily that fits a guy like George Pickens or DK Metcalf. Those guys aren't necessarily like detailed route runners. They're more of those big play threats that you think about when you think of a guy like Russell Wilson.

So, you know, neither one of them, I think, is going to be the slam dunk answer. And I think that for optics sake, if the Steelers bring back Russell Wilson, they risk the fan base saying this is doing the same thing and expecting different results. By the same token, if you bring in Aaron Rodgers, you look at it. And I mean, basically, Joe Douglas, the former GM from the Jets lost his job because he believed in Aaron Rodgers too much and tried to surround Aaron Rodgers with enough pieces.

And that did not work either. So basically, you're choosing between two options that neither one of them you can guarantee is going to be the upgrade. I think that they're going to go with Rodgers just because of kind of a change and maybe we'll try something different and it'll work. But inevitably, I think if you talk to me a year from now, we're going to be sitting here saying which quarterback or the Steelers going to be drafting in the first round.

I think that's where all this is headed. Mike DeFabo here from the Athletic. Now, I feel like we go through this every year with the Steelers. It's like, hey, we won enough and now we got to get rid of Tomlin and Tomlin isn't going anywhere. And now they have quarterback options again. What does this mean for Mike Tomlin if we get the same old again this season, regardless of who's that QB? Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you that the fan base is definitely frustrated because and really Mike Tomlin is a difficult coach to evaluate.

Well, actually not. That's not true. He's a great coach. There's no question in my mind that he is a great coach who cares about his players and often gets the best out of his team. But, you know, when you go eight years without winning a playoff game or a team in a franchise like the Pittsburgh Steelers, you're not meeting expectations. And Mike Tomlin has the same standard as the standard.

It does not seem to me that the Steelers are living up to their own standards right now and they haven't over the last eight years. So he's not going anywhere. The front office and the ownership group, they really have a lot of respect for him. They just basically one calendar year ago gave Mike Tomlin a three year extension. They gave him a raise that makes him one of the top five highest paid coaches in the NFL. They tell you how they feel about him, but that's not going to stop the public outcry and people frustrated that the Steelers are flaming out again in the first round of the playoffs.

Yeah, he has some of the best job security in America. Hey, Mike, always a pleasure having a chat with you. Thank you for the insight. Tell everybody where they can follow you and your work with the athletic. Yeah, absolutely. You can catch all my stuff on the athletic and you can follow me on social media at Mike Sabo, that's D-E-F-A-B-O.

And let's see what this quarterback situation looks like. Thank you, Mike. We'll catch you soon. All right. Sounds good. Thanks a lot.