Biggest Positions of Need for the Steelers Entering 2024 NFL Offseason

The 2023 season was an oddly tumultuous one for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The 2024 offseason could reflect that as they have some important needs to address.

Ultimately, the Steelers probably performed up to or beyond realistic expectations. They made the playoffs and continued a streak that goes back to 2003 of avoiding losing seasons.

They finished 10-7 despite starting three quarterbacks and dealing with an offense that was so inept at times they fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada in the middle of the season.

Still, the defense proved to be good enough to get them to the postseason, even if it wasn't enough to pull off an upset once they got there.

That's likely not enough for a franchise that is accustomed to playoff success and playing in a highly competitive division. The Steelers are over the salary cap to start the offseason, but they have plenty of avenues to create space and rank seventh in potential cap space based on Over The Cap's analysis of possible cuts and restructures.

With that being said, here are three positions that are in desperate need of answers this offseason.

Quarterback

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Mason Rudolph

As the old saying goes, if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have one.

In the Steelers' case, they trotted out three different starters this season. Granted, that was mostly due to Kenny Pickett's ankle injury that wound up ending his season. But Pickett was healthy in the final two weeks of the season when the Steelers elected to stick with Mason Rudolph.

Rudolph was the hot hand, but it's telling that the team didn't automatically turn things back over to Pickett as soon as he became available. The second-year player threw just six touchdowns to four interceptions across 12 starts. His QBR went from 53.6 as a rookie to 38.5 this season.

Most importantly, head coach Mike Tomlin was non-committal about him going into the offseason.

"There's always competition in this thing," Tomlin told media. "We don't anoint anyone. Man, I'm appreciative of [Pickett's] efforts and where he is and excited about continuing to work with him. But certainly, he will be challenged from a competition perspective moving forward. Competition brings the best out in all of us."

A quarterback doesn't have to be a finished product two years into their career, but Pickett hasn't shown nearly enough to feel good about him being the unquestioned started going into 2024.

Finding legitimate competition for the position has to be a priority.

Offensive Tackle

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Dan Moore Jr.

The Steelers have dealt with subpar left tackle play since the heyday of Alejandro Villanueva. If they are going to take the next step as an offense that has to change in 2024.

Dan Moore Jr. has been holding down the position over the last three seasons, but he hasn't shown the growth you'd like to see. In his rookie season, he started 16 games had a blown-block rate of 3.6 percent and ave up seven sacks.

Two years later, his blown-block rate was actually higher (4.8 percent) and he gave up nine sacks while playing 150 fewer pass-blocking snaps, per Sports Info Solutions. PFF seems to agree with Moore's lackluster development. He graded out at 57.8 as a rookie and 51.7 in 2023.

Drafting Broderick Jones in the first round of last year's draft gives them some flexibility here. He played on the left side at Georgia but ended up on the right side for Chukwuma Okorafor this year.

Finding a suitable starter in free agency could be tough. There just aren't many starting-caliber tackles that hit the market. However, this year's draft class is fairly loaded at tackle. There are six who cracked the top 40 of Bleacher Report's latest big board.

Even after drafting Jones last year, the Steelers should be giving serious consideration to drafting another one.

Cornerback

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Patrick Peterson

The Steelers have a really exciting young cornerback in Joey Porter Jr. He allowed a passer rating of just 70.1 when targeted in his rookie season and he made all the progress you'd like to see from him after not being named a starter at the beginning of the season.

The problem lies in the other starting spot on the outside. Cornerback is a position that requires depth for success in the league. The Steelers mostly got away with only playing four corners throughout the season but that is the exception, not the rule.

Levi Wallace and Patrick Peterson were the other outside corners throughout the season. Wallace is a free agent and Peterson is a logical cut candidate because he would clear up nearly $7 million in cap space.

If Pittsburgh wants to continue building a defense that can carry them through the transitions that the offense needs to go through then they have to make an investment in the secondary.

From a free agent perspective, there are veterans with a little more recent success than Wallace like Ronald Darby or a younger option like Sean Murphy-Bunting.

It would also make sense for the Steelers to go back to the draft. Cooper DeJean, Kool-Aid McKinstry and Nate Wiggins are all names to keep an eye on who could be available in the