The Pittsburgh Steelers ended their 2024 season in essentially the same situation in which they found themselves a year ago — unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs in the initial round. Losing their fifth consecutive game to close out a once-promising season, the 28-14 final score didn’t fully reflect the utter dominance by the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers demonstrated yet again that they do not belong in the conversation among the top echelon of AFC powers including the Chiefs, Bills and Ravens. Worse yet, the QB situation looks every bit as cloudy for the team today as it did a year ago.

Head Coach Mike Tomlin’s decision to name Russell Wilson as the starting QB in Week 7 — and his persistence in sticking with Wilson through the futility of the team’s final, five games — directly contradicts Tomlin’s repeated statement about persisting in the same approach while expecting a different result. And the result at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday night was an even darker picture than what Steelers Nation had been watching in the previous defeats by the Ravens, Bengals, Eagles and Chiefs.

The main storyline of the 2024 Steelers season is a severely underperforming offense which consistently hangs its defense out to dry. By the time December rolled around, it was obvious that the Black-and-gold defense had begun to crack under the pressure of repeatedly trying to keep the offense within striking distance of opponents. Not surprisingly, this formula crashed and burned when facing potent offenses like those on their schedule during the season’s stretch run. As the Ravens proved on Saturday, there wasn’t much left in the Steelers’ defensive tank by season’s end. While the defense certainly is far from perfect, it had been performing significantly better during the first three quarters of the season.

At this point, the Steelers’ principal failures lie in the sphere of strategic planning and development/utilization of players. Except in the crucial QB room and some nagging issues on the OL, the Steelers are a team with solid talent. Unfortunately, because QB is the position most greatly needing an upgrade, the Steelers probably will have to offer some of their key players as bait if they aim to make a deal to move up in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Fans and pundits have offered various reasons why they believe the Steelers ought to part ways with Mike Tomlin. But in the wake of the Steelers’ past several seasons, it’s the failure of the team’s overall strategic planning which most strongly suggests a coaching change might be in order. For example, why didn’t the team prepare better for the departure of Ben Roethlisberger when they knew very well his retirement was imminent? And when they selected Kenny Pickett as their first pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, the conclusion is that either the Steelers grossly overestimated Pickett’s potential to become a franchise QB or they didn’t stick with the youngster long enough.

In either case, this is the kind of strategic blunder which affects a team’s performance for multiple seasons. The decisions to let Pickett walk and bring in the Wilson/Fields duo — initially hailed by some as a master stroke of strategy — has completely backfired. Wilson has clearly demonstrated that his skills are in decline and he cannot be viewed as even a short-term answer at QB. The team obviously had so little confidence in Justin Fields that he scarcely saw the field after having a mostly successful, if unimpressive, debut in the first six games.

As closely involved in these key decisions as Mike Tomlin has been, it’s difficult to escape the conclusion he’s now heading back to the drawing board after two failed plans. If “Plan A” was drafting a young QB as heir apparent to Big Ben and “Plan B” was to plug-in a pair of QBs with substantial experience, then the Steelers’ upcoming, offseason moves should now be viewed as the advent of “Plan C.” It remains to be seen whether the Rooney family is inclined to afford Coach Tomlin the opportunity for a third, strategic reboot in as many seasons. As the team’s inability to compete successfully at playoff time for the past several seasons has shown, a completely new and different approach might be what’s necessary.

Today’s NFL has a wealth of QB talent, some of which is quite young (e.g. Bears, Commanders, Texans and Broncos). Combine this with established AFC stars such as Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, and we get a sense of the challenge facing the Steelers in fielding a truly competitive team within the next few seasons. Quarterbacking is the one deficiency virtually assuring that a team won’t reach the SB. The Steelers won’t get anywhere near the Promised Land if they continue fielding QBs like Wilson, Trubisky, Rudolph and possibly Pickett. Pickett and Fields are omitted from this list because both are still young enough to develop.

The disappointment with Mike Tomlin’s performance as head coach this season ought to be tempered by similar disappointment with the showing of OC Arthur Smith. In particular, Smith failed to fully utilize the offensive talent he was working with this season.

Najee Harris is one of the league’s most punishing and athletic RBs. There’s no excuse beyond poor game planning for Najee not being a larger factor in the Steelers offense. The same goes for Jaylen Warren who possesses the ability to become the same kind of weapon that Darren Sproles once was for the Chargers. Overall during the 2024 season, this talented tandem was grossly underutilized. And the Steelers will be a better team if they can manage to keep both players in Pittsburgh.

While some will claim the Steelers are deficient in the receiver room, both George Pickens and Pat Freiermuth compare solidly to receivers on the best NFL teams. As Big Ben demonstrated throughout his career, a top QB can make many receivers into stars. The same applies to Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. Furthermore, the NFL Draft is perennially rich in wideouts, so it’s never a question of where to find the necessary talent when a team already has its franchise QB.

This begs the key question of what’s the best strategy for bringing a potentially dominant QB back to the Steel City. Given the fact that a substantial number of great NFL players (including Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt) have never tasted the thrill of a SB victory, it’s obvious that the only truly indispensable player in today’s league is the QB. And given the strong likelihood that at least the next two seasons will conclude similarly to the 2024 campaign, the one objective which the Steelers absolutely must achieve is to find a QB who can become the team’s future poster boy. Without Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers would still be among the NFL teams without a single league title. Whatever sacrifices the organization needs to make moving forward, finding the next franchise QB needs to be the top priority.