Throughout the 2021 offseason, much of the media have said the Pittsburgh Steelers were one of the best landing spots for Jets Sam Darnold. That changed drastically yesterday with the news of the Carolina Panthers trading for Darnold. The Panthers ended up sending a 2021 sixth-round pick as well as a 2022 second-round pick and a fourth-round pick. The question is did the Pittsburgh Steelers make the wrong decision by not trading for Sam Darnold?
No matter how you look at how the Steelers are handling the quarterback position in Pittsburgh they're still behind 2-3 years with their future quarterback. They do have Ben Roethlisberger who turned 39 years old during the offseason who can still play at a high level, but they still need to look at the quarterback position going into the future.
With that being said there is no way the Pittsburgh Steelers would give up a second-round pick for Sam Darnold. I don't think they should have either. Darnold does have some pretty big upside, but he has not been very good in New York and I feel he is worth a third-round pick instead of a second-round pick.
The Carolina Panthers trade benefited both sides and it was not a bad trade. It would have been a bad trade for the Pittsburgh Steelers at this point because they need to have as much draft capital as possible to help revamp their key losses in the 2021 offseason. So at the end of the day good for the Panthers on getting Sam Darnold, but it was not a big mistake for the Pittsburgh Steelers to give up 3 draft picks for him.