The Pittsburgh Steelers finished last season with a 10-7 record, good enough for second place in the AFC North before falling to the Baltimore Ravens 28-14 in the Wild Card round.
However, Pittsburgh has three quarterbacks currently set to be unrestricted free agents at the start of the new league year with Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen all hitting the market.
With that, Steelers general manager Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin will have to bring in other quarterbacks to join Skylar Thompson (re-signed on a reserve/futures deal) on their roster.
ESPN’s Aaron Schatz recently predicted that the New England Patriots will trade Joe Milton III this year, and he could be an intriguing option for Pittsburgh.
Milton, 24, began his collegiate career at Michigan (2018-20) before transferring to Tennessee for his final three seasons (2021-23). In 43 games between the two schools, he completed 61.6% of his passes for 5,353 yards, 37 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while adding another 661 yards and 12 scores on the ground.
New England then selected Milton in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL draft despite taking North Carolina’s Drake Maye in the first.
While the former Volunteer spent most of the season as the team’s emergency third quarterback, he got to see his first regular-season action in the team’s Week 18 matchup against the Buffalo Bills’ backups.
In that game, he completed 75.9% of his passes for 241 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 16 yards and another score.
Milton’s performance, along with his size and arm strength, has seemed to pique teams’ interest around the league, and while he probably shouldn’t be guaranteed a starting job, he could be brought in to compete for a spot.
Whether or not Milton gets moved will depend on New England’s plan to back up Maye. They could bring in another veteran backup to be a mentor/coach for the former Tar Heel and part with Milton for more draft capital. However, they could also keep Milton as their primary backup and save money for 2025 while having two young quarterbacks to develop.
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