The Pittsburgh Steelers will be on the search for their next franchise quarterback as Ben Roethlisberger played his final game for the Steelers, and perhaps his career, during their Wild Card playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said that all options are on the table as the organization heads into a pivotal offseason.
“I’m excited about that — that challenge,” Tomlin said, according to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “Those of us that are competitors are. It’s a challenge, man. It kind of makes you uneasy. But I’ve learned to run to those challenges. I’ve learned to appreciate those challenges. The uncertainty surrounding them is inspiring to me in terms of producing work.”
While the 39-year old Roethlisberger has not yet officially announced his retirement, Tomlin said that he’s “proceeding with the assumption” that Roethlisberger will not be playing next season.
“All options are on the table,” Tomlin said. “I enjoy working with [general manager] Kevin [Colbert] this time of year because we speak plain English. We have to improve our football team. There’s two major ways you do it. You do it to free agency, and you do it through the draft. We have to look at what’s available to us in the draft positionally. And we have to look at what’s available to us, potentially, in free agency, positionally, and then we kind of bring those two discussions together. And it kind of gives us a path in which to go about addressing our needs.”
The Steelers own the 20th pick in the NFL Draft and currently have Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins as potential options.
“Mason and Dwayne have had their moments, but they’ll have to prove that,” Tomlin said. “And not only in the team development process but through playing itself. They’re guys that start that I wouldn’t characterize as every-day starters. And so they’ll be given an opportunity to establish themselves, and there’s going to be competition. There always is.
“I think that both guys have positioned themselves to fight that fight with what they’ve done from a work standpoint and a professionalism standpoint in 2021.”
