From now until late April, you'll hear any number of theories and possibilities for how the Steelers should address their No. 7-sized hole at quarterback for next season and beyond.
But for the second week in a row, the AFC championship-bound Kansas City Chiefs served as a reminder of how a patient process can be the best course of action. Mileage may vary, depending on whether you have the right guy or not, but there's no denying the Chiefs had a plan and stuck to it: Use a first-round pick on a rookie you believe in, then redshirt him like a freshman in college who needs a year to prepare for life at the next level of football.
"We feel very lucky to have Pat and to be able to step in and watch him grow here. Let's see how he does," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said prior to training camp in 2018, following a full year of Mahomes sitting and developing behind veteran Alex Smith.
"Are there going to be growing pains and all that stuff that go on? Sure, he's a young guy that's learning the game. We're here to teach him and that's what we'll do, and he's here to learn and then go play and have fun doing it."
There were barely any growing pains when Mahomes became the starter in Kansas City after a season of waiting. He led them to a 12-4 record, reached the AFC championship and won league MVP. Mahomes didn't throw an interception until Week 5 that year and didn't lose until Week 6, a run that included lighting up the Steelers for six touchdowns in his third career game (he did play once as a rookie, Week 17).
Obviously, for other teams in search-and-acquire mode at quarterback, it's not as simple as "just find the next Mahomes." If it were that easy, every franchise would do it.
But the way the Chiefs transitioned to the glory of the Mahomes era is a blueprint other organizations will try to follow. Some, like the Packers, are already in the midst of it, though their pick of Jordan Love didn't exactly go over well with Aaron Rodgers. The 49ers, who just ended Green Bay's season and possibly Rodgers' career there, are headed to the NFC title game despite drafting Trey Lance third overall and keeping him on the bench in favor of Jimmy Garoppolo.
In Pittsburgh, Mason Rudolph — or Dwayne Haskins, for that matter — isn't nearly as accomplished as Smith was before Mahomes or even Garoppolo in San Francisco. But he could be the same type of placeholder, should the Steelers identify a quarterback (or multiple) they love in this draft. Using that 20th overall pick on a successor to Ben Roethlisberger, or maybe trading up the way the Chiefs and 49ers did for Mahomes and Lance, wouldn't necessarily mean the Steelers want to give that guy the keys to the offense from Day 1.
"Those decisions are interrelated based on our global needs, and the totality of those global needs," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said last week of adding a free agent or a rookie to the quarterback group. "I enjoy working with Kevin [Colbert] this time of year because we just speak plain English. We have to improve our football team. There's two major ways that you can do it. You do it through free agency and you do it through the draft. We have to look at what's available to us in the draft, positionally. 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."
In plain English, if a stud — or someone they view as a stud — is available to them in the draft at quarterback, that's the route they'll try to go. Tomlin also acknowledged that Rudolph and Haskins will have to prove they can be "everyday starters," which isn't a great sign for two guys who have combined for seven seasons and 23 starts in the NFL.
Adding to that, Tomlin mentioned "there's going to be competition — there always is" at quarterback this year for the Steelers, and it's possible that competition includes a player with more invested in him than any other passer on the roster. Rudolph, who signed a one-year contract extension last offseason that would pay him $3 million in base salary in 2022, is well aware that his circumstances could change in a major way depending on the Steelers' path in the draft.
"I have no idea. I think you have just as good of an idea about who will be in the room as I do," Rudolph said last week. "Those decisions are made way above my pay grade, so I'm going to control what I can control and prepare myself."
While Mahomes is the greatest example of a first-round quarterback who served a one-year apprenticeship then parlayed it into immediate success, the Steelers also have one of the cautionary tales of the opposite approach. In 2019, Washington had two stop-gap options at quarterback in Case Keenum and Colt McCoy but couldn't resist seeing what they had in their No. 15 overall pick as a rookie.
Haskins made his debut four weeks into the season as Jay Gruden benched Keenum in a blowout loss. He'd go on to start seven games, winning just two of them, for a Washington team that finished 3-13. A new coaching staff came in and had seen enough of Haskins after just four starts in his second season before replacing him with the same guy who kept the seat warm for Mahomes — Alex Smith.
It's a classic case of nature versus nurture, really. Mahomes may be 10 times the quarterback Haskins is or ever will be, but would things have gone differently had their situations been reversed?
"I've never really had the opportunity to sit there and go through [every part of playing quarterback]," Haskins said last week. "Being able to watch that and learn that and being able to apply that in the way that we practice ... now the biggest thing is showcasing that."
Given that the NFL playoffs so far, especially this most recent divisional round, showed just how the balance of power in the AFC has shifted thanks to the brilliance of young quarterbacks — Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow — there's sure to be some level of angst within Steelers headquarters as the decision makers brace for life after Roethlisberger.
They've fallen behind in the literal arms race, but the Chiefs-Mahomes marriage is now one win away from a third straight Super Bowl appearance. Perhaps the "hurry up, then wait" recipe has never looked so appealing.
"Having Alex giving me those experiences and teaching me how to be successful was huge for me," Mahomes said in January 2019, just before starting his first AFC title game. "Coming out, you don't know what you don't know. You don't know what it takes to be a really good and successful quarterback in the NFL. Being able to have someone in front of me who was one helped me out a ton."
