At this point in the offseason, if you, the reader, doesn’t know the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t have a quarterback under a contract that isn’t a Reserve/Future contract, you haven’t been paying attention. The majority of this brief offseason has been media pushing the Justin Fields or Russell Wilson narrative.

Who will they sign?

Fans have been able to deduce from Art Rooney II and Mike Tomlin how the team is looking at the quarterbacks who were on the roster in 2024 as potential answers for 2025. We also know the likelihood of bringing both back again is extremely unlikely. Rooney himself talked about having quarterbacks with a similar skill set, and Wilson and Fields couldn’t be further from that principle.

While we can talk about the who all we want, the question I have is the urgency in which the Steelers will be handling their business at the position.

Let me explain.

If the Steelers like either Wilson or Fields to be their quarterback in 2025, and longer considering Rooney’s comments about avoiding a one-year deal at the position, the team would be wise to try and lock up either quarterback before the start of free agency in March. For the Steelers this makes all the sense in the world. Be aggressive in your pursuit of the quarterback you desire to keep around for next season, and don’t allow them to even test the free agent waters.

However, for the player this makes significantly less sense. If you are slated to be an Unrestricted Free Agent, something Fields has never been in his career, you would be wise to want to see what your market value is among all 32 NFL teams. It would make sense to maximize your worth when you have the chance.

This is where the Steelers find themselves in quite the conundrum. If they believe in either quarterback who was rostered in Pittsburgh last season, getting them locked up should be a top priority for the team. Rooney said getting the coaching staff locked up will be the first business to tend to, followed by the quarterback position.

Screw that. Hiring a new inside linebackers coach to fill Aaron Curry’s role can wait. You need to figure out the quarterback position, and fast.

The Steelers showing some urgency at the position will be telling in many ways. For the sake of this exercise, let’s say the Steelers want to retain Fields as their quarterback. If they make a strong push to sign him before the start of free agency, which is completely legal, it would show not just the aforementioned urgency, but also Fields wanting to be in Pittsburgh. This same story played out last offseason with Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was slated to hit the open market, but signed in Tampa because it’s where he wanted to be.

In a perfect world, which I know we don’t currently live in, this is how the Steelers offseason would go with either Wilson or Fields.

Who do I want the Steelers to sign? That’s not important at this juncture, I’ll save that for another article, but how the team handles the position will be eye-opening. Before bringing this to a close, it is important to note even if the Steelers don’t lock up a quarterback prior to free agency doesn’t mean they didn’t try. They just didn’t try hard enough. Having urgency would mean you don’t let that quarterback hit the open market, no matter what. If the Steelers have a better plan in place, and it involves someone who they’ll have to wait until March to sign, then that’s a new wrinkle to this scenario which could get really ugly, and fast.

Not having a quarterback, other than Skylar Thompson, under contract will be a huge challenge for the Steelers. I have a feeling they know it, but I hope they don’t lean on their “slow rolling” ways and get a deal done sooner, rather than later.