Burning questions for the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers offseason
The Pittsburgh Steelers offseason is in full swing, which means rumors and speculation are everywhere as to what will happen with the franchise in the coming months.
As free agency approaches in March and the NFL Draft in April, the Steelers will have their fair share of decisions to make before and after. There are also some individuals who will be factoring into these decisions as well.
Here are some burning questions as we take a wider view of the Steelers offseason and some stories that may impact it.
Will Mason Rudolph re-sign?
This burning question could be a topic all itself. A third-round draft pick of the Steelers in 2018, Rudolph was passed over in a competition to replace Ben Roethlisberger in 2022 when the team signed veteran Mitchell Trubisky and drafted Kenny Pickett.
With Pickett injured and Trubisky benched during the second half of the 2023 season, Rudolph came to play, leading the Steelers to three consecutive victories and a playoff berth.
Scheduled to become a free agent in March, team president Art Rooney II and head coach Mike Tomlin have each stated they would like Rudolph to return in 2024. While the latter expressed Pickett will compete for the starting job, Rudolph will have to decide if he wants to be part of that type of competition again.
While many feel the team may have wronged him by not giving him a true post-Big Ben shot at the starting job, no other team showed interest in signing Rudolph last offseason either. The Steelers bringing him back plus sticking with Rudolph as the hot hand may be enough – with a proper contract and concessions made behind the scenes – for Mason to return in 2024.
Will the Steelers sign a veteran quarterback?
If Rudolph returns the quarterback room shouldn’t be as crowded, which made Trubisky an easy cap casualty this offseason.
If Rudolph does not return, who might the team sign to add pair in a competition with Kenny Pickett? The list of names aren’t aplenty, such as Joe Flacco, Ryan Tannehill, and Jacoby Brissett.
Who will remain on Arthur Smith’s offensive staff?
When Matt Canada was fired as the Steelers offensive coordinator, Steelers quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan and running backs coach Eddie Faulkner stepped in as a tandem to replace him.
Sullivan has a long history in the NFL working as an OC himself, which suited the team well as an interim play caller while Faulkner tweaked Canada’s playbook as much as possible week-to-week.
With fans demanding an outside hiring – and getting one in former Falcons head coach Arthur Smith – it will be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the offensive position coaches. Faulkner, was already extended, but Sullivan’s status was a little up in the air.
Sullivan had interviews for other coaching vacancies around the league, which would indicate the Steelers are okay with him leaving, should he choose to do so. They are talking about keeping Sullivan in a different or the same role as well. Tom Arth was also hired as a passing game coordinator, a first for Pittsburgh.
It will be interesting to see if any other names are added or removed to the staff. One would think that Smith may have some input on those position coaches, but ultimately the final say will rest with Coach Tomlin.
Will Broderick Jones move to left tackle?
Jones, the Steelers’ top overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft was a surefire left tackle prospect but found himself filling in at right tackle when the team stuck with Dan Moore Jr. on the left side of the line and instead benched Chukwuma Okorafor on the right.
Tomlin hinted at a wait-and-see approach to Jones moving back to the left side in his last press conference of the season. With Okorafor gone – the team saves $8.75 million in cap space if he’s released – they will have to find at least one other starting tackle, should they move on from Moore too.
Moore is in the final year of his rookie contract, which would indicate the Steelers have no obligation to keep him as a starter. However, there is a set of circumstances that the team cannot find a suitable right tackle in free agency or the draft, and instead sticks with Jones playing on the right side in 2024 – and Moore or another player to be determined manning the left tackle position.
Will Najee Harris “sit in” during training camp?
Free agency hasn’t been kind to running backs over recent years, with the very few who have landed big contracts – such as Ezekiel Elliott or Le’Veon Bell – falling to the wayside.
Harris, who enters the final year of his rookie deal, could be entering contract negotiations as soon as this offseason. The Steelers will have the right to use a fifth-year option on the former first-round pick, which would involve a substantial bump in pay and potentially push those talks back one more year.
However, if they do not exercise Harris’ option, he would enter training camp with 2024 as his final season on his current deal. Having publicly expressed frustration for what other running backs have gone through, Najee could follow in the footsteps of teammates T.J. Watt and Diontae Johnson, each of whom reported to training camp in Latrobe, Pennsylvania but quietly kept to themselves away from team drills while negotiating a new deal.
While this is speculative at best right now, this set of circumstances wouldn’t surprise me either, as the Steelers could view the cheaper Jaylen Warren as a viable replacement long-term for Harris, and forego any extensions to Harris’ contract.
