The Pittsburgh Steelers have recently been named as a potential free-agent destination for quarterback Jameis Winston, and on the surface, it makes sense.
Ben Roethlisberger is 38 years old and is coming off of a 2019 campaign in which he played just two games due to an elbow injury, and Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges do not exactly inspire much confidence behind him.
Even if Roethlisberger bounces back and plays well in 2020, you have to figure that the end is near for the veteran, who has sustained a rather dubious amount of injuries throughout his NFL career.
Winston is just 26 years old, so he could serve as the heir to Roethlisberger and take over once he retires (or if he gets injured again next season).
But it just isn't a great idea.
Winston has been in the NFL since 2015 and has yet to show any signs of real progression.
Yes, he led the league in passing yards and threw 33 touchdowns this past season, but he also racked up 30 interceptions, making him the first player in history to throw 30 touchdowns and 30 picks in the same year.
That isn't a great distinction.
Winston has a big arm, no doubt, and he possesses some mobility, but the accuracy just isn't there, and he clearly has significant trouble reading defenses.
We can say what want about Winston potentially being a new man after undergoing LASIK eye surgery earlier this offseason, but it wasn't his eyesight that was the biggest reason for his lack of success over his first five years in the NFL.
Do the Steelers really want to hitch their wagon to Winston moving forward?
They might not have any better options right now. Not as far as the eye can see, anyway. Maybe Rudolph has some potential, but he was playing so poorly late in 2019 that he was benched in favor of Hodges, who went undrafted. Sure, Rudolph ultimately won his job back before going down with a shoulder injury, but supplanting Hodges is not exactly a major accomplishment (especially when Hodges displaced him to begin with).
But there is this thing called the NFL Draft that Pittsburgh can turn to if it wants to find a successor for Roethlisberger. It doesn't even have to be this year. The Steelers could attempt to find a quarterback in 2021.
Whatever the case may be, we have seen enough of Winston to glean that he will probably never be anything more than an inconsistent signal-caller who can display flashes of brilliance sometimes while making you raise your eyebrows and scratch your head at other times.
Pittsburgh would be better off just scouring the draft pools and/or potentially waiting for another young quarterback to become available before signing Winston.
And yes, the Steelers can just sign Winston for one year on a prove-it deal. But again, unless Roethlisberger gets hurt or falls off a cliff, Winston wouldn't see the field. And even if he does play a few games and looks good, is a few good games from Winston enough to convince the Steelers he can be their quarterback of the future?
There will likely be other, more fruitful avenues for Pittsburgh to explore.
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