Art Rooney II is comfortable with the current Steelers quarterbacks

On Wednesday, Steelers team president Art Rooney II my did a fan forum call through Steelers Nation Unite. One of the questions posed by a Steelers fan was if the team will add a running back, wide receiver, or quarterback in free agency.

“We are in the process now of preparing for free agency,” Rooney replied. “The new league year starts on March 18. There is nothing we can do between now and then other than prepare for it. We’ll be looking for opportunities if we can to add a player we think can help us.”

Before the Steelers even reach free agency, they are going to have to make some tough decisions with their current personnel in regards to the salary cap. With the Steelers currently up against the cap, they will have to be releasing some players in order to offer tenders to their restricted free agents as well as any attempts to retain unrestricted free agents.

When it came to addressing each specific position brought up the question, Rooney was more open to the idea of adding players at two of the three positions.

“Whether it’s a wide receiver or running back,” Rooney continued. “I am not sure about quarterback, whether we’ll have an opportunity to sign anybody.”

Rooney then went on to comment about the Steelers current roster of quarterbacks going into the 2020 season.

“I think we are pretty comfortable with the people we have on the roster right now in terms of Ben and Mason and I think we will have Duck and Paxton Lynch participating and competing in camp and things like that this year.”

When looking at salaries for the quarterback position, it makes sense for the Steelers to continue with their current roster from merely a numbers perspective. With Ben Roethlisberger accounting for $33.5 million towards a salary cap, bringing in another player for more than the league minimum would just add more money to a position in which only one player is on the field at a time.

In other words, Art Rooney II is acknowledging the Steelers are “all in” on Ben Roethlisberger at the quarterback position. But with the Steelers being in the same position last year, hopefully they can avoid a repeat where almost all of the money allotted to the position was on Injured Reserve for the majority of the season.

For Art Rooney II to show faith in his current roster is not surprising at all. Telling fans not to expect any signings at quarterback for 2020 was somewhat surprising but grounded in reality. Hopefully Steelers’ Nation will not get their hopes up of landing a free agent quarterback for 2020 which the team really can’t afford.