ESPN Analyst Predicts Sam Darnold Will Be Steelers’ 2025 Starting QB

The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves in a bit of QB purgatory, which has them on a seemingly endless offseason loop of speculation at the most important position in all of sports.

Names like Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Daniel Jones and even Sam Darnold have been speculated about as the starting quarterback for the Steelers in 2025, with Fields or Wilson being the most likely.

For ESPN’s Seth Walder though, in a piece predicting the starting quarterback for all 32 teams in Week 1 of the 2025 season, he chose Darnold as the Steelers’ starter.

“Keeping Fields is a possibility, but if the Steelers really liked him, why did they continue to play Russell Wilson over him? And though I have some healthy skepticism of how Darnold will fare without Kevin O’Connell and Justin Jefferson, he’s arguably the best free agent quarterback available,” Walder writes. “The Steelers land him because they have the most to offer — a potentially very good defense, winning history under Mike Tomlin and the lack of a top pick (making them less likely to take a first-round rookie).”

In a free agent crop featuring Fields, Wilson, Darnold and a name like Jameis Winston, Darnold is head and shoulders the best quarterback on the open market, especially after coming off a season in which he completed 66.2% of his passes for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns with 12 interceptions and a passer rating of 102.5.

The No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft made his first Pro Bowl, too, settling in nicely with the Vikings. He took them on a rather magical run after Minnesota traded up to land Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft and then lost him for the year in the preseason.

After bouncing around the league with stints with the Jets, Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers, Darnold settled nicely into the system in Minnesota under head coach Kevin O’Connell and thrived, becoming one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL last season.

There’s still the possibility that the Vikings retain him this offseason, especially with McCarthy a complete unknown and still working his way back from a knee injury. But if Darnold hits the open market, he’d make a great deal of sense for the Steelers, though it would be a hefty price tag. 

That alone likely has Darnold out of the running for the Steelers, who can get Wilson or Fields cheaper. But if Walder’s predictions come true, Darnold will be the Steelers’ quarterback in 2025, Wilson will be without a starting job, and Fields will be the starter in New Orleans.