The Jig Is Up: Steelers Offseason, Vol. 11, The Line in the Sand
Recently I was thinking about my time writing about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Throughout my career doing so, I’ve essentially done it all.
Commentary, news, breaking stories, features and even took a stab at simple film room breakdowns.
The one thing I’ve never done is work on just a random thought type format.
I can’t speak for you, the reader, but I am always thinking about writing and the Steelers. Thinking about different aspects of the team and game. Thanks to reading Myron Cope’s biography I decided to put a unique spin on this type of feature.
Now, for the name of the article, anyone who is familiar with the Styx song “Renegade” should know where it came from. If not, this is where it came from…
The jig is up, the news is out
They finally found me
The renegade who had it made
Retrieved for a bounty
Nevermore to go astray
This’ll be the end today of the wanted man
The jig is up…time for some randomness.
The Line in the Sand
The waiting game continues with the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers, and last week I wondered how long the waiting game would last. To be honest, I never thought a decision would take this long, one way or another, but here we are. To me, I believe it is at this point where I believe the Steelers would be smart to put a proverbial line in the sand, some might just call it a deadline.
If I were picking when this deadline would be, I’d suggest the team has to know before the 2025 NFL Draft, but not just the Thursday before Round 1. I think it would be appropriate for the team to know at least a week or so before the draft so they can plan accordingly. If the Steelers choose to give Rodgers as much time as possible to make this decision, even if it were to stretch after the draft, it would be a very bad look for the organization. Then again, this is just my opinion.
Bye Bye Russ
Russell Wilson is now a member of the New York Giants, and for me I was happy to see him go. And no, it had nothing to do with his on-field play. If I’m being completely honest, I would have been okay if they ran it back with Russ in 2025 if all other options evaporated, but there was a reason I was happy to see him go.
Let me explain the video below:
It’s story time!!
How I’m excited for the departure of Russell Wilson, and it has nothing to do with on-field production for the #Steelers pic.twitter.com/KoMEEKLIF9
— Jeff Hartman (@JHartman_PIT) March 27, 2025
Post-Ben Era
The Pittsburgh Steelers are currently in quarterback purgatory. This isn’t breaking news in any possible way, but it isn’t the first time the Steelers have been in this situation. Remember when everyone always talked about the Bradshaw to Ben years?
Yeah, that was from 1983 to 2004.
Think about that.
During those years fans got to see quarterbacks like Mark Malone, Mike Tomczak, Neil O’Donnell and Kordell Stewart. I left off names like Kent Graham and Tommy Maddox for a reason. Nonetheless, the point remains the same. While the Steelers seem to be following the same path as the Bradshaw to Ben era, can the current regime make the right moves to not have it last over 20 years?
The backpedal is real
Last week Cam Heyward went on his podcast and talked openly about how he is done recruiting players, how he isn’t going to be going on a dark retreat with Aaron Rodgers or anything like that. When he made those comments the options for the Steelers at quarterback were multiple. Now, it seems more singular, and Cam isn’t standing behind Mason Rudolph as the only option, but has become open to the thought of Rodgers being on the team.
Cam realizes his window to win is shrinking fast, and Rodgers might give them the best chance to win. Yes, the backpedal is real, and I don’t blame Cam at all…
“When I look at our team right now, it would be really cool to have a guy like Aaron Rodgers.”
We asked Cam Heyward what he would say to Rodgers on behalf of the Steelers… pic.twitter.com/a380sVqKrD
— Kyle Brandt (@KyleBrandt) March 26, 2025
Sports Can Suck
There are moments throughout the sports seasons when you realize how frustrating being a sports fan can be. The Steelers losing in the first round of the playoffs, again, is absolutely a reminder of this, but it extends to other sports too. The Penguins about to miss the postseason would be one, and so would the Pirates wasting a Paul Skenes start and blowing a 4-1 lead on opening day.
Yes, sometimes sports just suck…but I’m a glutton for punishment I guess.
Freaking #Pirates
— Jeff Hartman (@JHartman_PIT) March 27, 2025
2025 NFL Draft Thoughts
On today’s “Let’s Ride” podcast, which can be heard below, I posed a question to Jeremy Betz regarding the Steelers plan in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft.
While everyone is enamored with trading back to gain more draft capital, mainly to recoup the 2nd Round pick lost in the trade for DK Metcalf, what if the team truly thought this draft was top heavy and didn’t care about late round picks. What if they decided to trade up near the Top 10 to get a player they feel is a transcendent talent?
This may sound counterintuitive, but I truly feel the Steelers focus is on 2026, and not necessarily 2025. And when I say the focus, I’m not just referring to the 2026 NFL Draft which will be held in the city of Pittsburgh. I’m talking about building a roster, and maneuvering through free agency with next year in mind.
Yes, 2025 would be a transitional, or bridge, year.
Not that they wouldn’t try to win this upcoming season, but knowing they are more than a year away, so try to build the roster for those seasons. When you consider that, the trade up option would make sense. Move up and get the player who you think can transform not just their position, but the entire roster.
Will it happen? I doubt it, but it’s worth a discussion…
Silence the Noise
With the NFL Draft less than 30 days away, it is important to remind everyone to be able to decipher the difference between fact and fiction. In the sports world, the fact and fiction lines get blurred by random takes which don’t really make sense. Like this one from Colin Cowherd:
How do you feel about Alabama QB Jalen Milroe to the Steelers with pick 21? pic.twitter.com/2FQHU3tXdV
— Bob Pompeani (@KDPomp) March 27, 2025
Jalen Milroe is a tantalizing prospect, but if the team selected him in Round 1, at pick No. 21, it would feel like they are grasping at straws to try and fix a mistake they’ve continually made since 2021. Sometimes you have to silence the noise and hope the Steelers would be smarter than to make a move like this one.
Player Spotlight
I wanted to start doing a spotlight segment every week during the offseason of a lesser known player who donned the black-and-gold for a time.
This week’s player: Cortez Allen
Allen was an intriguing prospect for the Steelers. He was a 4th Round draft pick of the Steelers in 2011 out of The Citadel. Allen quickly earned more playing time throughout his rookie contract. With his rookie deal expiring, the Steelers signed Allen to a five-year, $24.6 million contract extension that includes $9.75 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $6.75 million.
The problem was Allen’s play quickly declined in the 2014 season, eventually being benched in favor of veteran Brice McCain.
In 2015 he played in just one game before landing on Injured Reserve (IR) for the remainder of the season. He was released by the Steelers on April 15, 2016 and never played another snap in the NFL.
That does it…the jig is up, they’ve finally found me. This renegade is outta here…be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for the rest of free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft.
As the Steelers drift through life without a franchise quarterback, some solace can actually be found in the “dark era” between Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger, 1984-2003. Even with the lack of a franchise QB during those years, the Steelers actually had a surprising amount of success that people tend to forget. Per Pro Football Reference, in those 20 years the Steelers made the playoffs 12 times, won the division 9 times, went to 4 AFC Championships and one Super Bowl. The “dark era” really wasn’t as dark as people think.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/index.htm
That actually somewhat parallels with the Steelers record since Roethlisberger retired in which the Steelers made the playoffs in 3 out of 4 years, albeit with no success.
That’s a tremendous point, and should be noticed as a point in their history when coaching and roster building was actually really good.
I agree with your comment. Steeler fans talk about the lack of the Steelers ability to draft a franchise QB after Bradshaw and before Ben, but they fail to go back and look at what QB’s were actually available to them to draft that could have turned out to be a franchise QB. I went back and looked at the QB’s drafted the other day between 83-2003.https://www.drafthistory.com/index.php/positions/qb
Aside from missing on Marino or Ken O’Brien in 1983 (who was a good QB for the Jets, even made a couple Pro Bowls), there were very few QB’s the Steelers could have drafted in the first or second round that would have made a huge difference over their 3rd round QB’s (Brister, O’Donnell and 2nd round QB Kordell Stewart).
Some of the QB’s like say Boomer Esiason, who they could have drafted in 1984, would have meant missing out on Louis Lipps. Would you make that trade? Even in ’86 when they had the 9th overall pick, was Jack Trudeau of the Colts or Chuck Long of the Lions any better than Brister? Mark Rypien was drafted in the 6th round of ’86, and was a starting Super Bowl winning QB with Washington, but that was more about a great team than the QB, seeing how they won with Doug Williams in that same era. Same with Hostetler 3rd round of ’84 with the Giants who replaced an injured Phil Simms. Really, the only two QB’s one could look back and say they missed on were Favre a second round pick of the Falcons in 1991 (although O’Donnell had just been drafted the year before) and Drew Brees, a 2nd round pick of the Chargers in 2001 (no Casey Hampton) I’ll throw a 3rd possible QB miss in Randall Cunningham in 1985. (No Daryl Sims)
Even not selecting Marino is understandable. While Bradshaw had been playing through pain all through 1982, he was still planning on playing in 1983. He did have offseason surgery under the alias of “Thomas Brady” after ’82 season. So perhaps they should have drafted Marino. But they had drafted Mark Malone in the 1st round of 1980. There were also rumors (untrue, but still rumors) about Marino and drug use in Pittsburgh. Lastly Rivera was supposed to be a great DT but he never saw the field due to the auto accident.
See I keep hearing that and I want to believe that about Marino but my brother says otherwise when I asked him about Dan. I want somebody to explain to me what the real truth is about Marino?
Don’t sleep on Neil, he was pretty good.
Regarding Cam Heyward’s softening of his stated stance about Aaron Rodgers’ unwillingness to “get off the pot” with the Steelers, I suspect that this is mostly a bow to the inevitability of Rodgers playing for the Steelers next year. Deep inside, Heyward surely still thinks that Rodgers is a putz. That putz is going to QB the Steelers next year, though, so Heyward must play nice.
a true Pittsburgh Steelers fan, the Steelers signed Mason Rudolph they don’t need Aaron Rodgers or Kirk Cousins they are nothing but trouble