Tim Benz: Of all the Steelers' QB options, this idea is the worst of the bunch

There are many options for what the Pittsburgh Steelers should do at quarterback this year. One of them is to draft a potential starter — most likely Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart — in the first round.

Another idea is to continue the free-agent pursuit of Aaron Rodgers. Or the team can hand the starting job to Mason Rudolph after numerous times of passing him over as backup.

Hey, I said there were “many” options. I didn’t say any of them were good.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com advanced one, though, that I absolutely hate: draft Sanders, then sign Rodgers anyway.

“There’s a possibility that they could do both,” Florio said on NFL on NBC. “It could work out to sign Aaron Rodgers and draft Shedeur Sanders. Or, as the timeline would go, draft Shedeur Sanders and sign Aaron Rodgers. But if it was only one, which do you think the Steelers would be better off doing? All in with Aaron Rodgers for one, maybe two years? Or roll the dice on Shedeur being closer to Ben Roethlisberger than Kenny Pickett.”

To answer the question of what I think the Steelers would do, my bet is the Steelers would be more inclined to sign Rodgers and wait a year on drafting a QB. After all, they’ve been trying to sign Rodgers for a month.

What would I do? If I’m Mike Tomlin/Omar Khan/Art Rooney II, and I think Sanders is worth a first-round draft choice, I’m taking Sanders.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Sanders should be a first-rounder. When I hear comps to QBs such as Geno Smith, Andy Dalton and Teddy Bridgewater, I don’t need to spend a first-round pick on a guy like that. I’ll bite my lip and pay way too much money for Rodgers for a year, or just ride it out with Rudolph before I do that.

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But doing both — drafting Sanders and then signing Rodgers — is a dumb idea. Anytime you draft a first-round quarterback with a veteran in place, that veteran instantly becomes a placeholder. Rudolph can fill that role. You don’t need to pay Rodgers tens of millions of dollars to do it.

Similarly, if you sign Rodgers, he is going to be your guy for 2025. Rudolph is a capable backup. The draft is in Pittsburgh in 2026. Draft your QB1 of the future next spring. The Shedeur-plus-ARod idea is doubling down on a key position with little assurance that either player will work out.

Not to mention, there is no 2025 second-round draft pick to be used because the team spent it to acquire DK Metcalf. So, in a year with significant depth along the defensive line and a desperate need to address that position in the draft, the Steelers shouldn’t wait until the third round to do so.

If they do, then running back, cornerback and wide receiver won’t be addressed until Day 3. That’s not good enough.

In the big picture, forget all the permutations and hypotheticals. If you think a first-round-worthy quarterback is there for you at No. 21, then take him and forget everything else. The issue is whether Sanders or Dart is really a first-round-worthy player.

To reiterate, I don’t think they are. Apparently, most of you don’t think so either, at least based on this social media poll I posted.

Steelers fans, if both Jaxson Dart and Shedeur should somehow be available to the #Steelers in Rd 1, what would your starting QB preference be to open 2025?

— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) April 10, 2025

By the way, I’m convinced that at least half of those who voted for Rudolph did so because he’ll be the easiest to move to the bench or release in 2026. Those folks voted for him because he’ll be the one with the least amount of baggage, not because they think he’s the best quarterback of the four.

Sadly, those people are probably right.

If ever there was proof that your team is in a quarterback quagmire, picking a QB based on how easy it is to move on from them one year from now is pretty good evidence of that.