Curtains for Steel Curtain? Steelers have no easy answers after playoff exit as QB riddle remains

BALTIMORE – It was unsurprising and unspectacular, another Pittsburgh Steelers season ending with a whimper instead of a winner.

One of the NFL’s flagship franchises ended its 2024 campaign with its fifth consecutive defeat, a 28-14 loss Saturday to the hated Baltimore Ravens in the wild-card round of the playoffs that was more decisive than the final score indicates. Pittsburgh’s drought since its last postseason win will extend to at least nine years. The Steelers, who’d hoped to climb the stairway to Super Bowl title seven some time ago, are now 16 years removed from their most recent Lombardi Trophy and only seem to be receding behind teams like the Ravens, Buffalo Bills and, certainly, a Kansas City Chiefs squad aiming for the league's first championship three-peat in nearly six decades.

You could see this team's demise coming – in fact some did five months ago before its campaign even began. I, for one, thought the Steelers would be much better off trying to build around a young, multi-dimensional quarterback like Justin Fields rather than fading veteran Russell Wilson, perhaps by focusing on incremental gains with youth and potential even if it meant one step back – perhaps longtime head coach Mike Tomlin's first losing season? – before taking substantial strides forward in the future. Now, both Fields and Wilson are headed toward free agency, the team will almost certainly have to reboot (again) at football’s most critical position, all while the future of Tomlin – he benched Fields in October after a promising 4-2 start for Wilson – seems to be coming under increased scrutiny as his team continues to spin its wheels.

"Russ fooled ‘em for a game or two, and then he went back to being the Russ that I’ve seen over the last few years,” former New York Giants vice president of player personnel and longtime NFL scout Marc Ross told USA TODAY Sports. “You can’t fool people in the NFL for long. Everybody’s got a bead on what he can do now, which is not much. When they made the signings, I thought Justin was the best option.

“They did themselves a disservice for what they did there. Nobody in Pittsburgh is crowing about Russell Wilson anymore.”

Which will likely be a permanent state of affairs in the Steel City as its most-beloved team embarks on another long winter after Wilson proved more mirage than miracle worker in 2024, even if the final numbers in Saturday's loss were passable (20-of-29, 270 yards, two touchdowns) if not impactful. It was the offense's first game with more than 200 net passing yards since Dec. 1.

“You can’t survive chucking up deep balls and hoping for miraculous catches to win games," said Ross. "And once teams figured that out, it was over with."

And it appeared over with Saturday almost before it began. The Ravens sprinted to a 21-0 first half-lead and brutalized their archrivals for 464 yards of offense, 299 coming on the ground.

Pittsburgh had no answers for Baltimore on the field or at the podium.

“Having 300 yards rushing on you is worse than having 300 yards passing," said safety DeShon Elliott.

"I know in the past we've played well in the beginning of the season, and then we just (expletive) the bed at the end."

Yep.

In the eight seasons since they ousted the pre-Mahomes Chiefs in the 2016 playoffs, the Steelers have averaged 10 regular-season wins … and none in postseason. If the bar is sterling silver excellence – “the standard is the standard” per Tomlin after all – then Pittsburgh has consistently fallen short while, in the context of those expectations, squandering the careers of dedicated stars like Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick, who would all be undeniably recognized as some of the greatest players in the franchise’s 92-year history … if they had rings.

And while the fan base's dissatisfaction with Tomlin continues to percolate amid rumors that the coach himself might be a trade candidate, the coach's longest-tenured player still has his back.

Asked if Tomlin's messaging was still resonating, Heyward replied: “Yeah. I don’t worry about Mike’s message, I worry about our technique and our execution. … I just wish we had played a lot better. It’s not a message thing.”

The throughline for Pittsburgh's issues between the lines is quite obviously the dysfunction behind center, from two-time Super Bowl winner Ben Roethlisberger’s late-career decline to – worse – a complete inability to remotely address his absence following his retirement three years ago.

“They had an aging Ben Roethlisberger, and they refused to be proactive with finding the replacement, and then you’re in desperation mode,” added Ross.

“You overdraft Kenny Pickett, and now you do a patchwork with Russ and Justin. At least you may have a chance with Justin to develop and do something right – which it seemed to be early this season – and then you pull the rug out. I just think there’s an overall philosophical disconnect or lack of progressiveness with that organization and the way they operate.

"It’s not the Steel Curtain anymore, it's different now. And they’re behind the times, and they’ve shown that.”

It's also absolutely been a systemic failure over the last month-plus. Pittsburgh’s losses have come by an average of 13.2 points. The Steelers were once again good enough to reach the Super Bowl tournament but not remotely capable of doing any damage.

“Those are my bags, not this collective’s bags," said Tomlin when asked about the continued one-and-done playoff failures.

"Certainly it came to a disappointing end tonight.”

They were completely dominated by an obviously more talented Ravens squad that overtook Pittsburgh for the AFC North title late in the regular season. And the Steelers did plenty to undermine themselves Saturday – whether it was tight end Pat Freiermuth's drop on the game's first play from scrimmage, to the constant pressure on Wilson, to another disappearing act by wideout George Pickens when the outcome was still in doubt, to a once-vaunted defense that just crumbled on the first drive, a 95-yard touchdown march by Baltimore.

Now they’re facing another offseason of drafting around 20th in Round 1 of the draft, which is where they got Pickett in 2022. The Pitt product lasted two seasons with the varsity before getting shipped to the Philadelphia Eagles. And with the 2025 draft seemingly light on quarterback prospects, if not quite as bad as 2022, the fallback options might be Aaron Rodgers or Kirk Cousins, maybe Sam Darnold. Perhaps they even try to run it back with Wilson and/or Fields.

“It’s been one of the best years for me personally to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. Obviously I hope I’m here," Wilson said Saturday night.

“I love this game, man, I’ve got so much more ball left in me.”

But Tomlin wasn't prepared to make any assessments following the loss.

“I’m not ready to, you know, take a big-picture approach," he said regarding his QBs. "Really assessing what happened today. I’m certainly appreciative of the efforts tonight, but I can say that largely for the entire season. They’re two quality people at the quarterback position, man, and really appreciate what they poured into this.”

As to Wilson's showing specifically?

“Again, it was like our play," said Tomlin. "It wasn’t good enough. I just love the spirit in which he continued to fight, the way he led the group out of the locker room after the half. But certainly none of us were good enough tonight.”

Still, re-upping Wilson or Fields will be likely be viewed by the locals in Western Pennsylvania as lateral moves – at best.

“I know a lot of Steelers fans – they feel like they’re perpetually in purgatory, and that they have no mechanism to get a quarterback that can legitimately compete with (Patrick) Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, even on some level (C.J.) Stroud and (Justin) Herbert and (Joe) Burrow and all these guys,” Ross Tucker, a former NFL offensive lineman who now serves as a game analyst for CBS and Westwood One, told USA TODAY Sports.

“I think they’re kind of in a tough spot."

One where they've remained for more than a decade.

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Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steelers' playoff exit leaves no easy answers to QB concerns