I’m ready to ruin someone’s day today.

Quite seriously, there’s a faction of Steelers fans who cannot get enough of their dislike of Landry Jones across to me. So, in order to appeal to their desire to see Jones leave Pittsburgh, I felt like once again making several cases for why this won’t happen.

You heard it here first: Landry Jones will be back for the 2017 season. Here’s why.

Cost-to-benefit ratio

The Eagles gave former Chiefs quarterback Chase Daniel a huge contract last offseason: to the tune of a 3 year, $21,000,000 deal!

Oh, and $12 million of that was guaranteed!

Will Landry Jones get $21 million in free agency?

Doubtful. In fact, Jones is in a much larger pool of free agent quarterbacks than Daniels was. That pool may include Kirk Cousins, Geno Smith, Colin Kaepernick, Josh McCown, Brian Hoyer, Case Keenum, Shaun Hill, Nick Foles, A.J. McCarron and Mike Glennon. He’s so overlooked that Pro Football Focus didn’t even have him listed in their Ranking the top 10 free agent quarterbacks. 

Less demand should mean a cheaper price, for a better quarterback…

He’s better than most on the above list

I already covered 5 free agent quarterbacks the Steelers should avoid last week, which included Kaepernick, McCown and a few others.

Truthfully, there aren’t enough good starting quarterbacks floating around the NFL to think there should be a plethora of capable backups.

In fact, if you take a look at what Chase Daniel has done in 7 years as a pro football player. He has a 2-2 record in 4 career starts, with a 65.4% completion percentage, 480 yards, and a single touchdown and interception.

Yes, Chase Daniel has only thrown for one touchdown in his entire career, on 78 attempts, yet Philadelphia ponied up 21-million smackeroos to add him as their backup.

But Landry is just what you need in a backup: capable. He doesn’t have to be Big Ben. No one wants him to be Big Ben either. Jones has a 2-2 record in 4 career starts, 60.3% of his 141 pass attempts completed, for 1,071 yards, 7 touchdowns and 6 picks.

Those numbers are all better than Daniel, not to mention the couple of games Jones has come in late, and won games, such as against the Arizona Cardinals and Oakland Raiders during the 2015 season. Some might diminish those victories, but without them, the Steelers don’t make it to the playoffs that season.

The Steelers won’t draft a quarterback

Ever the controversial topic by those who fail to realize players such as Tom Brady and Drew Brees are competing at high-level in their late-30’s, the Steelers are not prepared to sever ties with their future Hall of Fame QB.

At least not yet.

Yes, there was some drama over Ben’s “retirement” remarks (though he said nothing of the sort, even refuting it within the same conversation) but that doesn’t mean burning a draft pick will be worth it now… or even in the near future. Taking a quarterback now means the Steelers could end up with a contract decision when Ben’s current deal expires in 2020; he’ll be 37.

There are critics who think Ben gets hurt more than Brady, but he’s also been sacked less each year he continues to play, due to an emphasis on offensive line play. Also, very few quarterbacks drafted ever amount to anything, and therefore, we can’t expect a rookie to step into Jones’ backup spot and perform to the same level as Landry, let alone Roethlisberger.

In fact, a new QB could be worse than both Ben and Landry Jones!

I hear the naysayers, but truthfully, you do not want to shove Big Ben out of Pittsburgh like Green Bay did Brett Favre or Indianapolis did Peyton Manning. Nor do you want to be left empty-handed like the Denver Broncos were Manning retired and Brock Osweiler left for more money.

The best way to avoid those situations is not forcing yourself to take a quarterback with a lot of life left in Ben’s arm. (Which means, welcome back Landry!)

What about that other guy?

Oh yeah… almost forgot. The Steelers do have another quarterback on their roster: third string QB Zach Mettenberger, who was acquired off waivers from the San Diego Chargers last offseason.

Since he joined the team late, we don’t know what kind of QB Mettenberger will be with the Steelers. He never played a single snap in a black and gold jersey last season.

What we do know is that Mettenberger is a former sixth round draft pick who is 0-10 (Titans) as a starter; and who was subsequently cut by his former head coach during camp last year, after going 2-for-8 in a preseason game against his former team.

One of those misfired passes was an interception, and Mettenberger also fumbled on another play in that same game, before receiving his walking papers. In his career he has a 12:14 interception ratio and has taken 31 sacks in 13 total appearances; 4 of those games he’s been dropped 5 or more times.

In other words, I wouldn’t count Mettenberger as a backup too soon. The Steelers need an offseason with the signal caller before deciding if he’s worth rostering.

Based on his previous performances, I believe it would be a mistake to put too much faith in a rookie or Mettenberger to replace Jones, at least right away. For those reasons, and because none of the free agents (for the cost/benefit) stand out as being a better option, Landry Jones should be back in 2017.