Rate the off-season

Good

FA:
Brisker was a solid pick. I only wished he was signed a year or two longer.

Dean is another solid pickup. Net positive is he's not another over-the-hill guy Tomlin liked adding and this guy has a couple of years left in the tank.

Pittman was a great pickup via trade and gave up very little capital to get him. Might as well consider this a FA pickup as much it's truly considered a trade.

Rico was a good pickup. He'll be a solid 1B option in the backfield.

Signing Herbig and eventually JPJ are great things moving forward.

Overall, including the draft, I find the additions to the roster more as a net positive as guys like Brisker and Dean are 3+ years younger than guys they've added the previous couple of off-seasons.

The Bad

Keeping Heyward, Ramsey and Cam. Having those guys on a 2026 roster does nothing for building a potential SB roster in 2028 and beyond. I guess the good news is there's still time to at least offload Ramsey.

 

On paper?! I give it a solid B.


Draft was the strongest overall point within the Offseason for me. I still have doubts about Daylen Everette but not quite as much as I did during my initial assessment of him. He seems to be trending up but that really won't be determined until Training Camp begins. Weakest part has easily been the extensions; namely Peezy Jr's.


Not sure what is going on there but hopefully a deal is done soon.

 

I think JPJs deal will be done immediately following the preseason.

 

A+

The Tomlin horror show is over.
Optimism has returned.
The rest of the off-season was gravy.

The DB room is the best its been in well over a decade.

MLB was neglected (the biggest negative of the off-season), but otherwise, it couldn't have gone much better.

Next off-season will be defined by whether or not we have a workable franchise-possible QB.

 

Many publications have said Steelers won FA.

 

Given how much quicker Omar has been with extensions in comparison to Kevin, I would have thought the deal would be done.

 

hoffman, joseph-day, cam johnston, homer, rodgers, tonyan signings as well were good signings for this year. joseph-day may be one of the better depth pieces we gained. DL and O-line have on paper gotten stronger with depth.

B+ i think they had a good offseason with the additions in free agency, bring back signings and draft i believe will payoff down the line and new staff.

 

I give it a C+ overall

B+ for free agent pickups
C- for draft
C for McCarthy hire


Ravens had a better offseason, IMO... which is unfortunate.

 

raven also lost a lot more.

 

Agree with you on Tomlin... but I thought Steelers should have went younger at HC and rolled with Rudolph/Howard/Allar at QB while drafting franchise QB in 2027. At least they got the offensive background right at HC. I hope the game hasn't passed McCarthy by. He's not a spring chicken and franchises with younger coaches... Rams, Raiders, Seahawks, Bears, 49ers, Eagles, Texans, etc... have an edge and advantage.

 

The off season is not over yet. I am still thinking Khan will do it again and completely screw over the 2026 Steelers by trading away one of their best players on Defense for a future draft pick.

He did it last year, and I am betting he is going to do it again this year. When can we get rid of Khan???

 

It’s been an A- offseason so far.

We could still look to trade some players for extra draft capital before the season starts.

 

Yea. Trading away Highsmith instead of TJ would be a huge mistake.

 

Some people are calling this a good offseason for the Ravens. I don’t see it. They lost John Harbaugh and replaced him with a first-time head coach in Jesse Minter.
They lost their best offensive lineman, Tyler Linderbaum, to free agency.

Both are downgrades. Yes, they added a proven pass rusher in Trey Hendrickson from the Bengals.

But every team can point to “we added guys in the draft.” That doesn’t automatically make it a great offseason.When you weigh the losses against the gains, this looks like a pretty average offseason to me.

And you think the Ravens had a better off-season than we did?

 

Harbaugh leaving Ravens is addition by subtraction as far as I'm concerned... just like Tomlin leaving the Steelers. Ravens have proven to develop OL better than Steelers since 2020 when Pouncey, DeCastro, Villanueva...left. I'm not saying Ravens will have a better Center than Linderbaum in '26, but there's a good chance they won't bungle it like Steelers did with Kendrick Green. Hendrickson is better than ALL of Steelers FA's acquired this year. He will give our OTs fits like he did when with Bengals. Pittman is the only sure shot improvement we'll have. The rest are big question marks... with decent potential. Wait and see.

 

Jamel Dean came over from the Bucs on a three-year, $36.75 million deal with about $12–13.5 million guaranteed. He’s still in his prime and put together a strong 2025 season—career-high three interceptions, solid coverage grades (allowed a very low passer rating when targeted), and the kind of size/length (6'1", 206 lbs) that fits well in a Steelers secondary.


https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/3873935/jamel-dean


IMO, this is a massive upgrade over what we had at CB #2 in 2025. You did not mention him.


As for John Harbaugh he did win the AP NFL Coach of the Year in 2019 after that 14-2 Ravens season. Long track record of sustained success, playoff appearances, and a Super Bowl. He’s a very good coach, no question.

His replacement is a no name.


Yes our OL was average at best from 2020-2025 under Tomlin. However he is gone and we have new OL coaches.

 

I see calls for trades

Have the Steelers actually traded a player once camp starts in somewhat recent history

T J May not be producing to the level of his contract but I have already explained why I believe they will not consider trading him

Cam Heyward had a very good season last year and is on a good contract for the production so let him go in any fashion would be foolish

I anticipate Metcalf having a good season this year