Pittsburgh Steelers 2025 NFL Draft Post Grades

Ladies and Gents, the 2025 NFL Draft is in the books.

I purposely took a week to give a thoughtful, nuanced take about what I thought of the Pittsburgh Steelers Draft. I wanted to give as much time as possible for the picks to stew and simmer, roll them around a little bit in that empty head of mine like shaking Yahtzee dice in a cup.

So what rolled out when the cup turned over? Well, not my brains, although it probably wouldn’t have surprised me if that happened. No, out came the collective ire of the Steelers faithful that have been waiting for a savior since dearly beloved Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger walked off into the Black and Gold night, now 4 seasons ago.

The Steelers, like other teams, had major lingering question marks going into the Draft about major positions of need.  Running Back, Defensive Line, Offensive Line (to a degree), Wide Receiver-ish…

Well, maybe not the last one. DK Metcalf is a very large man that fits the description of NFL Wide Receiver quite well. Well, he fits the description of a LOT of things, including physical specimen, this despite his well documented absolutely horrid diet consisting mostly of coffee and candy. I wonder if the Seachickens staff were able to rein him in on that front before they shipped him across the country?

But what about that biggest glaring need of all? The one I eluded to above with the wispy eyed disappearance of Pittsburgh’s beloved son a couple seasons ago?

It’s been said numerous times by all of us talking heads that if you don’t have an elite Franchise Quarterback, that you do everything in your power to get one, because you ain’t winning a Super Bowl without one…

… Just ask the 2000 Ratbirds (T Dilfer)…

… Or the 2002 Buccaneers (B Johnson)…

… Or the 2006 Bears (R Grossman)…

… Or the 2013 Ratbirds (J Flacco- more on him in a sec)…

… Or the 2018 Eagles (N Foles)…

… Uhhh, what was I trying to say again?

Oh, yeah, I remember, I was commenting about how if you don’t have an ELITE franchise quarterback, you do everything in your power to get one. If you are waiting to run to the comment section to tell me about how the great Joe Flaccid(sp?) is a “FrAnChIsE qUaRtErBaCk”, please, go @ someone else. You’ll never convince me he was an ELITE franchise quarterback. Heck, you’ll have a hard time convincing me he’s even a GOOD quarterback outside of that magical run he had in 2013, but you know what they say about blind squirrels finding their food source…

So if the quarterback position is so important to get right, then why do teams NOT spend every opportunity they can to get the guy they need to lead the franchise for the next decade and a half?

Let’s bring that question closer to home. Why have the Steelers not given more capital to the one position they know they need to get right more than any other position?

Well, if you remember, there was the Kenny Pickett debacle, where the Steelers spent a 1st Round pick on the best Quarterback in that Draft the very year after Saint Benjamin retired.

So they’ve invested Draft capital in the position, but that avenue did not pan out.

Then there was the Draft last year. John Madden once famously said “If you have two QB’s, you actually have none…”

Well, the Steelers, fresh off of bringing in not one, but TWO castoff QB’s, decide that the position should be ignored in the Draft and took yet ANOTHER Offensive Tackle, for the 2nd year in a row when they selected Troy Fautanu. So the Steelers have tried Draft capital and Free Agency as their modes of acquiring their next Franchise QB, with no such luck as they were with the number 11 pick of the 2003 Draft.

So what’s next for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Quarterback position? It seems that the only girl left at the NFL Spring Prom Dance to take is Aaron Rodgers. The same Aaron Rodgers that about half the League passed on because, as you tell your boys growing up, “you gotta watch for the crazy one’s son, they’ll key your car and end up with a bun in the oven, they’re more trouble than they’re worth…”

If Aaron Rodgers was a dot on the Hot/Crazy matrix, he’d be sitting around an 8 on the Hot axis, but also an 8 on the Crazy axis. If you need help with that analogy, I won’t post the link here, but i might post it somewhere else, but it’s good for a grownup laugh or twenty.

BUT, the point I was making there, is that I think we all know Coach Tomlin by now, and he’s never been one to shy away from dating “crazy” now and again. Just ask Antonio Brown… Or LeVeon Bell… or heck, even a Young Big Ben.

I just hope that Rodgers doesn’t try keying the car. We don’t drive one around here. We’ve got a Bus, and I think the whole damn city will erupt if that thing even gets BREATHED on by anyone that’s not a Yinzer and disrupts this City’s relationship with it’s beloved Steelers. Rodgers has that type of “crazy” in him though, so it will be interesting to see how this goes.

The real reason for this article wasn’t my diatribe on the abysmal, glaring, depressing hole the Steelers have with the QB position, but rather what the Steelers did to try and build an actual “team” around Mr Non-Franchise QB. Yes, Aaron Rodgers might have BEEN a franchise QB, but remember that the Steelers need a bridge QB and are not looking for him to fill the role of long term, franchise QB.

So without further adieu, lets grade the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers Draft!