The Steelers aren’t above Aaron Rodgers, and it’s time to stop pretending they are

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The Steelers haven’t won anything in eight years – they aren’t above anybody.

The history of the Pittsburgh Steelers will forever be told in a beautiful hardback book composed of the finest leather. The tales of the 1970s read like nostalgic novellas. The teams of the 1990s were an underdog that consistently got to the brink, but never pulled the sword out of the stone. The 2000s were about triumph and becoming one of the NFL’s most feared teams once again.

The last decade of the Steelers’ story, though, reads more like an R.L. Stine Goosebumps book. Scary, but so bad that it’s silly and not even real horror. Which brings me to the point of this column – ENOUGH of this whole notion that the Steelers are above Aaron Rodgers, and that anyone would be lucky to start for the Steelers.

For almost a decade, the Steelers have been the dictionary definition of mediocre and have won nothing. The Jacksonville Jaguars have won a playoff game more recently than the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Cleveland Browns have won a playoff game more recently than the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they did so in Pittsburgh with a COVID-riddled team and coaching staff. The Washington Redskins became the Washington Football Team, then the Washington Commanders and made it to the NFC Championship Game in the span since the Steelers’ last playoff win. Their head coach, Dan Quinn, lost the Super Bowl, was fired by the Atlanta Falcons, spent three years as the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, and then was hired by the Commanders before leading them to the NFC Championship Game – all of that took place since the Steelers’ last playoff win.

Only seven teams have a longer current playoff-win drought than Pittsburgh:

• Miami Dolphins: 24 years
• Las Vegas Raiders: 22 years
• Chicago Bears: 14 years
• New York Jets: 14 years
• Arizona Cardinals: 9 years
• Carolina Panthers: 9 years
• Denver Broncos: 9 years

The Steelers are above nothing right now and have won nothing in almost a decade to earn any sort of praise that their biggest national defenders give them.

The fact of the matter is that Rodgers will be the best quarterback the Steelers have had since Ben Roethlisberger retired. If they want to end this playoff drought, they are in no position to turn their nose up and act holier than thou – they put themselves in this position. And while I’m optimistic about whatever quarterback they select in the 2026 NFL Draft, it’s hard to put faith in the head coach and team owner to help turn that guy into a star when the results they’ve yielded for almost 10 years have been nonexistent.

The lovely folks reading this have the same number of playoff wins as the Steelers since 2017. All the while, since 2022, they rank 20th in EPA per play and have finished 26th, 28th, and 20th in points per game in the last three seasons, respectively. They are a team that can’t get the offense right and seems hellbent on trying to win games like it’s still 2008. They turn up their nose at any thoughts of evolving and becoming more modern, opting instead to have the NFL’s highest-paid defense while the offense is built from scraps. It’s a formula that constantly loses, and one that Mike Tomlin refuses to stray from.

So, despite being an iconic franchise, there should be no discussions based on the argument of “The Steelers are better than waiting for Aaron Rodgers.” Because right now, that is unequivocally false.