The Pittsburgh Steelers secured a berth in the AFC playoffs by earning the seventh seed in 2023. They improved their win total by one game from 2022 to get the final AFC Wild Card spot. Still, the roster took a substantial step forward after Omar Khan and Andy Weidl's first draft class exceeded expectations and delivered multiple starters and key contributors to Mike Tomlin and his coaching staff.
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Steelers free agent signee, inside linebacker Elandon Roberts (50), waits for the snap during the team's Week 1 game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Khan did not have as much success in his first attempt at free agency. Isaac Seumalo and Elandon Roberts were solid, but not spectacular additions. Patrick Peterson's regression was a major blow to the Steelers' secondary, and injuries to Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander halfway through the season lessened the impact of the free agent class in 2023. The Steelers now have 15 players entering free agency at the end of their contracts. This does not include cuts like Mitch Trubisky or Chukwuma Okorafor.
Steelers' Mason Rudolph Selected As One Of The Hottest Free Agents By The Athletic
On Tuesday, NFL.com released an article by Gregg Rosenthal, the host of the Around The NFL podcast, that ranked the top 101 free agents in the NFL. It isn't much of a surprise that the Steelers do not have one player who found his way onto the list. Even Mason Rudolph, who closed the season playing the best football of his career and was recently ranked as the sixth best available free agent quarterback by The Athletic, could not supplant the likes of Jameis Winston, Gardner Minshew, and Tyrod Taylor, who all made the NFL.com list ahead of him.
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Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Mason Rudolph did not make the list of top 101 free agents available, according to NFL.com.
The PM Team w/Poni & Mueller took up the topic after discussing Rudolph's rumored price tag in free agency being comparable to Trubisky's salary, according to Bill Barnwell from ESPN. Andrew Fillipponi told Chris Mueller he was taken aback that no Steelers free agent made it onto the list.
“First of all, there’s not a single Steelers player in the top 100 free agents,” Fillipponi said. "It’s a little bit surprising with Rudolph. Listen to these other guys, Jacoby Brissett 30th. They have got Jacoby Brissett ahead of Baker Mayfield. Brissett barely played.”
The ranking of Jacoby Brissett in the top 30 NFL free agents is frankly amazing and places the entire list in question. Adding insult to injury, NFL.com ranked two former Steelers on the list. Kevin Dotson was ranked as the 53rd best available free agent, and Steven Nelson came in at 67 on the list. Khan put together a roster good enough to make the AFC playoffs, but not one of the 15 actual free agents who wore black and gold in 2023 warrants inclusion in the top 101, according to the NFL's website.
"Did Jacoby Brissett pay people to do this," Mueller asked incredulously. "People seem to think Kevin Dotson is going to be a $20 million-a-year player. I don't care that he is an interior offensive lineman, if the guy looks like one of the best eight right guards in the NFL, he's a pretty good player. Where was Brissett again? I can't get past this. 30th? He had to have paid these people off. I'm stupefied by this. If you told me right now, my life is on the line and I don't know anything else about the teams, I want Jameis Winston over Jacoby Brissett. It's not close"
The Steelers' roster construction during the final years of the Kevin Colbert and Tomlin regime make it very hard to assign blame. Dotson is a prime example. Did the Steelers miss when Colbert picked him in the fourth round in 2020, or did Tomlin and the worst offensive coordinator in recent history, Matt Canada, torpedo him by playing him out of position? Based on the contract that Dotson is about to sign in free agency to play his position, it is a tricky question with no easy answers.
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Steelers GM Omar Khan (right) and HC Mike Tomlin (left) are preparing for their second offseason.
The good news is that the Steelers do not have to answer it. Tomlin, Khan, and Weidl are now making the moves in free agency and the draft. The Steelers moved on from Colbert and Canada in 2023. Suppose players continue to be played out of position or underutilized after removing two convenient scapegoats. The blame could and should land on Tomlin as the only remaining puzzle piece in that case. Here is hoping it doesn't, and the Steelers roster continues to improve drastically under the new leadership.
What do you think, Steeler Nation? Are you surprised that even Mason Rudolph can't crack the list of the top free agents available in 2024? Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq.
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