5 teams who must call 49ers and ask for a Trey Lance trade
By Peter Panacy
No. 3: Pittsburgh Steelers
Projected Starter: Kenny Pickett
Bailing on second-year pro Kenny Pickett would be borderline irresponsible for the Pittsburgh Steelers, particularly after they used a late first-round NFL Draft pick on him a year ago.
That said, doing so is less about the draft investment and more about where Pittsburgh finds itself within the AFC North, chock full of three other franchise-caliber quarterbacks in the Cleveland Browns' Deshaun Watson, the Baltimore Ravens' Lamar Jackson and the Cincinnati Bengals' Joe Burrow.
Pickett, by any decent measure, is not going to find himself on that list anytime soon, if at all.
Trading for Trey Lance also might not solve Pittsburgh's quarterbacking challenges right away, but it would at least reinforce the quarterback room now if Pickett struggles, and it could potentially shape up to the point where the Steelers would have a young, dynamic quarterback who could compete with the likes of Burrow or Jackson, provided Lance develops in a way the 49ers originally thought he would.
Simply put, Pittsburgh needs an elite quarterback to match the prowess within the AFC North. It doesn't have one, currently.