2024 Steelers Season Recall: Looking back at Pittsburgh’s free agent signings
Steel City Underground presents our 2024 Steelers Recall: a look back at Pittsburgh Steelers games and storylines from last season.
Nearly one year ago the Pittsburgh Steelers transaction wire started to light up like a bingo board. As the start of the new league year approached, second-year general manager Omar Khan had his work cut out for him as the team approached a tedious offseason full of quarterback controversies.
The Steelers started three different quarterbacks during the 2023 season, but the future of all three was in doubt as the period for signing free agents loomed closer. 2022’s high-profile quarterback signing, Mitchell Trubisky, was released on February 12th, along with underperforming center Mason Cole and punter Pressley Harvin III. The early releases were to allow those players to get ahead of their expiring contracts—which would not be renewed—and sign with new teams.
The Steelers were reportedly in contract talks with impending free agent Mason Rudolph, who led the team to three straight victories and a playoff berth to close the year. Rudolph made the media rounds and said all of the right things about wanting to return in Pittsburgh, but there was doubt as to whether he would come back: and if he did, would he compete for a starting role?
Former first-round pick Kenny Pickett also had some controversy surrounding his name after it was leaked he may have balked at the idea of playing backup to Rudolph at the end of the season. Pickett, injured in early December, would fail to appear on the field again for the Steelers.
It was a precursor to how free agency would play out, with the Steelers quarterback position unsettled and a former Super Bowl-winning veteran quarterback hitting the market as the Denver Broncos parted ways with Russell Wilson.
It was the latter that would send shockwaves through the organization, as Wilson first met with the New York Giants before traveling to Pittsburgh to meet with the Steelers. Wilson wouldn’t meet with any other teams and appeared intent on joining head coach Mike Tomlin in the Steel City.
Nine-time Pro-Bowl QB and former Super-Bowl champ Russell Wilson plans to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers, per league sources. Wilson will sign a team-friendly, one-year deal in which the Broncos will wind up paying $38 million of his salary while Wilson wears the black and… pic.twitter.com/eqQC8w0tIK
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 11, 2024
Wilson’s announcement was a precursor to further house cleaning, as Khan would release two veteran players with higher cap hits, CB Patrick Peterson and WR Allen Robinson, before making another bold trade ahead of the free agency deadline. In his first year as GM, Khan would make headlines by sending WR Chase Claypool to the Chicago Bears for what would turn out to be the 32nd pick in the NFL Draft. Joey Porter Jr. was that eventual pick, and now
Khan would make another receiver swap for a defensive back, shipping disgruntled WR Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers for CB Donte Jackson.
The Jackson trade would fill the gap left by Peterson, and potentially be an upgrade from the latter who was 33-years-old through the 2022 season. Jackson would also shore up a secondary losing free agent cornerbacks Levi Wallace, James Pierre, and Chandon Sullivan.
Russell Wilson’s signing would become official shortly after, but wasn’t the only major signing by the Steelers as they landed the top linebacker in free agency, former Baltimore Ravens LB Patrick Queen. Queen, who turned 25 years old in August, was a four-year veteran who had already been named a second-team All-Pro in 2023. He wouldn’t be the only former Raven to join the roster, as S DeShon Elliott signed a two-year deal the same day to replace recently released S Keanu Neal.
One day later the fireworks would continue, as Wilson’s signing set off a chain reaction of transactions. The Pickett controversy, while still behind closed doors, was perceived as a real conflict as Pittsburgh traded their 2023 starting quarterback to the Philadelphia Eagles for a fourth-round pick.
In one fell swoop fans were bewildered by adding the older Wilson and trading the younger first round prospect, Pickett. However, within a short span on the same day the team would also announce the addition of QB Justin Fields.
Fields, a former first round pick in his own right, was forced out by the Bears, who had the top pick of the 2024 NFL Draft and were poised to pick top USC prospect Caleb Williams. The Steelers sent a conditional sixth-round pick in 2025 for Fields, who at the time was reportedly added to be Wilson’s backup: a role that Pickett wanted no part of.
The Wilson signing and Fields trade ended talks with Mason Rudolph, who was also reportedly ready to sign a deal with the Steelers on the eve of free agency. However, Rudolph’s agents caught wind of the Wilson signing and the Pickett turmoil, which caused some hesitation and left Mason looking for a deal elsewhere. (He would sign later with the Tennessee Titans.)
Khan would close out the first week of free agency by upgrading the punter position from Harvin to former Houston Texans standout Cameron Johnston, while also adding WR Van Jefferson to the room as an experienced player to help pad the loss of Diontae Johnson. Khan made two more special teams deals when he re-signed LS Christian Kuntz and S Miles Killebrew during the week.
Heading into the second week of free agency, lesser splash signings were made as the Steelers adding DT Dean Lowry, RB/KR Cordarrelle Patterson, and WR Quez Watkins. The Steelers would gain one more passer as well, signing QB Kyle Allen as their presumed third string, completing a clean sweep of the quarterback room by moving on from Trubisky, Pickett, and Rudolph in favor of Wilson, Fields, and Allen.
As we approach free agency on March 12th, 2025, the Steelers are in a similar situation of needs. The quarterback room could once again receive a total makeover, as last year’s three quarterbacks are all scheduled to become unrestricted free agents. Khan will still be looking to add another premiere wide receiver and may not have found a true answer opposite Joey Porter Jr. just yet either. Stay tuned as we look back on last season and how some of those storylines mirror, and explain their impact on the upcoming 2025 season.
