The Pittsburgh Steelers have been patient when it comes to their quarterback situation for the 2025 season thus far.
Over the last few weeks, Omar Khan and company have been patiently trying to see about the asking price for every quarterback that’s even potentially available, from Trevor Lawrence to Matthew Stafford, to waiting to see about releases for Kirk Cousins and Derek Carr.
While that’s been happening, Justin Fields and his camp have been dragging their feet about whether or not they’ll re-sign with Pittsburgh before the tart of free agency. Based on who is available right now, the Steelers’ preference would be to bring Fields back, but Fields and his agent want to hit the open market instead and hope to start a bidding war.
Khan said last week that the Steelers want to have quarterback taken care of before the start of free agency, so that they can be ready to hit the contact period with the knowledge of who their quarterback will be and what their remaining budget is for the rest of their moves.
“In an ideal scenario, you’d like to have this done before the start of the league year,” Khan said on last Tuesday. “That impacts who you sign. That impacts the type of receiver you may go after or how you build the rest of the team, so all of that has an effect.”
But that deadline just got moved up. Davante Adams was released on Tuesday by the New York Jets. Tyler Lockett was cut on Wednesday by the Seattle Seahawks. Christian Kirk is expected to join them on the waiver wire.
Players whose contracts expired after the 2025 season can’t be contacted by other teams until noon on Monday, March 10. But players that are released by other teams can be contacted at any time.
Negotiations are starting for those players, along with trades, with Deebo Samuel already moved and Cooper Kupp and DK Metcalf both firmly on the market.
The Steelers no longer have the luxury of time. They need to get a deal done with Fields, or if they can’t, pivot to Wilson, so that the team can make a move at wide receiver — especially if it’s for a player like Kirk or Metcalf that could reasonably be expected to sign a four-year contract.
The time for patience is running out. Fields has some leverage here. If they really want him, they may have to pay more than they want to, in order to make that deal happen. They have the cap space. Khan is a savant at finding more. If that’s their guy, the y need to pay him and go get him a wide receiver before the market keeps them from being able to do so.
