Steelers Future and Draft Day!

Hope for the future and thank you to Big Ben

Who’s it gonna be???

No one really knows except for the internal staff and ownership of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger is now headed to the Hall of Fame and most certainly will be first ballot. I’m looking forward to watching the Hall of Fame game in Five years and seeing number 7 inducted into the Football’s most prestigious ring of honor. There’s only a little bit of an issue that year, It’s not just going to be Big Ben’s night. Tom Brady just so happened to retire the same year.

But, as a Steelers fan he was the first Pro player that I followed through his career from start to finish. I’m sad that I never was able to attend a game at Heinz field and maybe get an autograph or something in person but he became a legend in front of my eyes. Like I’ve said before, 2004 was really the first year that I started paying attention to sports in a day to day type of way with the ACC championship year of the VT football Hokies and the 2004-2005 draft and 15-1 year with the Steelers. I remember Tommy Maddox being hurt and Ben getting his chance, and he never relinquished the starting job. Two Super Bowls and a HoF career later and you have a Steelers legend arguably the greatest.

THANKS BEN. IT WAS A PLEASURE.

Who’s gonna be the quarterback of the future? Mason Rudolph? Is it going to be a draft pick? Is this the year to make that replacement? The answer is that we really don’t know, there seems to be a lack of obvious talent in the QB draft class but there is one potentially perfect story line.

”With the 20th pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers select Kenny Picket”. - Mr. Roger Goodell (maybe), NFL Commissioner

Is that what we want to hear? For all intents and purposes this guy was the soul of promising Pitt Panthers team for his entire career. Certainly performed above expectations only being a 3 star prospect coming out of high school in 2017. But are we desperate enough to get him? Are we actually in the perfect spot to get him?

Subjectively looking at it I don’t think he would be a first rounder in previous drafts especially in recent years. I scoured the last 5 drafts and I kept feeling I would feel comfortable drafting him in the second round. Previous draft classes just feel stronger currently.I would say he’s absolutely an athlete on the level of a Josh Allen but in terms of having top half of the league NFL ability throwing the ball? Thats definitely a question mark.

Those questions exist for him at this level and that makes me feel like a first round grab is a REACH for Mike Tomlin and the Black and Gold. With an elite core group on defense and no obvious option, this year the Steelers might be seen taking a back seat and “playing with wut they brung” this next season. But if they do draft Kenny and he performs like the organization thinks he can, then that would be a hell of a story.

Kenny is a stud though, just check out his signature play from the ACC championship game. He literally changed the game, the NCAA rule has been changed since to explicitly not allow fake QB slides. This one is awesome.

This draft will be the Steelers faithful’s most anticipated in 18 years, its time for the Rooney family to draft perfectly again and build towards another couple titles and maybe another HoF career. As a Steelers fan hope is a good thing, it doesn’t sting too hard too often.

I mean we’re not Browns fans.