PALM BEACH, Fla. - With the Steelers appearing as if they'll have yet another potential full-time starting quarterback in 2025, General Manager Omar Khan admits that it's not the way the team envisioned moving on from franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger after his retirement following the 2021 season.
But Khan also has been around long enough to know that continuing to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves is the best way to position the team to find its next long-term answer at quarterback, even if that means continuing to churn through players at the position.
"It's not easy. It's not ideal," Khan said Monday at the NFL's Annual Meeting at The Breakers Hotel. "I'll put it that way. We addressed it last year. We're addressing it this year. At some point, we have to find the long-term solution. I'll say that might happen this year. It could happen next year, but in the meantime, we're going to keep doing whatever we can to win a championship this year."
The Steelers brought in Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen in 2024, completely reworking their quarterback room from the 2023 season.
With Wilson, Fields and Allen having all signed elsewhere in free agency this year, the Steelers will once again have an all-new quarterback group in 2025, though Mason Rudolph, signed as a free agent this offseason, spent the first six seasons of his career with the Steelers. Rudolph, a third-round draft pick of the Steelers in 2018, and Skylar Thompson are currently the only quarterbacks on the team's roster.
The Steelers have always taken at least four quarterbacks to training camp each season.
"We always go to training camp with four quarterbacks, and we have two under contract right now, so all options are on the table through free agency, trade or draft," Khan said. "So all options are on the table."
The Steelers met with free agent quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh two weeks ago and signing the four-time NFL MVP remains an option, but head coach Mike Tomlin reiterated Monday morning that the team has placed no deadline on a decision from Rodgers.
But Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reported Monday morning that Rodgers and new Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf, acquired in via trade earlier this month from the Seahawks, got together in Los Angeles for a throwing session.
"I wasn't there, but that's good if that did happen," Khan said.
The Steelers acquired Metcalf in return for a second-round pick and a swap of late-round selections prior to the start of free agency, even though, at that point, Thompson was the only quarterback under contract with the team.
Khan and Tomlin said that situation had no effect on Metcalf's desire to join the Steelers.
"He is a professional. He did his homework," Tomlin said. "More than anything, I could say that when we had discussions, you felt his preparedness, his knowledge. It wasn't something that you had to educate him about. But that just speaks to why we were so excited about having him."
Having a talented, two-time Pro Bowl receiver already on the roster to pair with George Pickens, as well as Calvin Austin III and 2024 third-round pick Roman Wilson, was something that appealed to the Steelers.
And the presence of two big, physical receivers in Metcalf and Pickens could make the Steelers an attractive landing spot either this year or next for a long-term solution at quarterback.
To that point, Khan and the Steelers have potentially acquired future compensatory draft picks in 2026 for some of their free agent losses this offseason.
While they don't know exactly where those additional picks will fall when the compensatory picks are awarded next spring – contract size and playing time are two of the primary basis for awarding picks – they do have an idea that they'll have some additional picks in 2026.
That could allow the team to move around in this year's draft or make a big move in 2026's draft.
"I think you guys got to know me over the last couple years, I think all options are on the table, staying put, moving out, moving back," Khan said. "I'm open to anything if it makes sense for us."
That has been one of the benefits of some of the turnover the team has had at the quarterback position.
Though both Wilson and Fields left in free agency, the Steelers knew when they acquired both that there was the potential to reap the benefits of the compensatory formula for those players.
"We kind of understood where our contracts were with our free agents," Khan said. "The possibility does exist, a good possibility does exist, for us to acquire comp picks, and so that's always been a part of the process this year. The fact that we've had the opportunity to acquire picks, I don't know exactly how it was going to shake out yet, but that's obviously been taken into consideration."
• The Green Bay Packers have proposed making the aiding of a quarterback, or any runner, in short-yardage situations, known as the "Tush Push," illegal as one of the handful of rules changes that will be voted on by ownership here this week.
Tomlin said Monday he's not necessarily in favor of doing away with the play, but understands why some might be in that corner based on player safety.
For example, the league has made efforts to improve player safety on field goals and PATs by making it illegal for one player to aid another to vault over the line of scrimmage.
"The first time I saw it, I couldn't believe that it was legal because it was illegal on the field goal," Tomlin said. "That being said, you hate to be against it, because when people are innovative, you want to respect that. And so there's certainly been some teams that have been more innovative than the rest of us in that regard, and you hate to penalize them for it.
But again, we got into the discussion on the field goal block because of player safety, and so that still remains to be a component of the discussion."
Tomlin noted that while there are thousands of other plays in the game from which to draw safety data, there have only been around 170 instances of the "Tush Push" being utilized.
As such, it makes the overall safety of the play difficult to judge.
"My real perspective is the player safety component. There's been discussions about the player safety component," Tomlin said. "It's why we took it off the field goal in terms of the field goal units. And so I think that's where the discussion will be (Monday). I'm really excited about the discussion. I'm open minded. I'm anxious to see what everyone has to say, but the larger part of the discussion for us is around player safety."
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast Pittonline@iheartmedia.com
• Tomlin was asked about the Steelers' home game in the 2025 season that will be played at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland and expressed his belief in what an honor it will be for his team to play the first NFL regular season game there later this year.
Former Steelers president and chairman Dan Rooney was the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland from 2009 through 2012 and worked tirelessly on many charitable endeavors on the island of Ireland.
"I know I'm really excited about it, to be quite honest with you, because I just think about the late, great ambassador to Ireland, and how fired up he would be about it," Tomlin said. "And so it makes me smile when I think about it. It's an honor to represent our game and our country over there, and I look forward to doing so."
The game will be one of the record seven international games played during the 2025 regular season, with Dublin joining Madrid, Spain, as one of the first-time hosts of NFL regular season competition.
