Once rare for Steelers, games vs. former Heisman QBs now the norm

The Pittsburgh Steelers once went 13 years between regular-season games against a former Heisman Trophy-winning starting quarterback. This fall, starting with Baker Mayfield’s scheduled Oct. 18 appearance at Heinz Field, the longest Heisman reprieve the rest of the season could be a mere two games.

With a Heisman winner atop the QB depth chart for each of their AFC North rivals, the Steelers are scheduled for six games against teams led by an owner of one of those iconic trophies.

Assuming no injuries or benchings, the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow, Cleveland Browns’ Baker Mayfield and Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson are projected to start at quarterback twice each against the Steelers between Weeks 6-17.

After facing a Heisman quarterback five times last season, it could mean 11 former Heisman winners in a 29-game span for the Steelers.

“It’s definitely fun playing against those guys,” free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said, “playing against guys like Lamar, Baker and soon-to-be Joe Burrow. We’ve got to step up to the plate and make sure we’re on our A-plus-plus game.”

Less than five months after LSU’s Burrow won the Heisman Trophy, the Bengals took him with the top pick in this year’s draft. Two years earlier, and after he won the Heisman at Oklahoma, Mayfield went No. 1 overall to the Browns. Jackson, who won the 2016 Heisman for Louisville, went 31 picks later to the Ravens.

Although college excellence doesn’t always correlate to the NFL — i.e., recent Steelers foes such as Johnny Manziel, Tim Tebow and Chris Weinke — the three AFC North Heisman winners are held in high enough regard that Steelers coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged it affects their organizational building.

“We’ve got to employ people to hunt those guys,” Tomlin said in explaining the drafting of a pass rusher (Alex Highsmith) with their second pick of this spring’s draft.

How rare was last year’s five games against Heisman winners? And how much rarer is potentially six such matchups?

Over the first 34 seasons after the 1970 AFL/NFL merger, the Steelers never had more than two games in a season against a former Heisman starting quarterback. Between a loss to the Jim Plunkett-led Oakland Raiders in 1980 and a loss to Vinny Testaverde’s Browns in 1993, the only time the Steelers lined up against a Heisman-winning starting QB was a Jan. 1, 1984, playoff game at Plunkett and the Raiders.

In the 15-plus years between that day and the 1999 opener against Ty Detmer and the (new) Browns, Testaverde was the only former Heisman starting QB the Steelers faced — albeit, nine times in that span.

Testaverde would start against the Steelers 13 times (including playoffs). That was the most for any Heisman winner until USC’s Carson Palmer was taken by the Bengals with the 2003 No. 1 pick. He faced the Steelers 14 times (including postseason).

The Steelers went from facing five former Heisman starting quarterbacks in the 1970s regular seasons, one in the ’80s and 11 in the ’90s (all but two of those — Detmer and Doug Flutie in 1999 — by Testaverde) to 16 games each in the 2000s and 2010s.

The Steelers face the possibility of playing as many regular-season games against Heisman-winning starting QBs in 2020 (six) as they played in the 1970s and ’80s combined.

“It’s something we look forward to as professional athletes, as competitors,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think it’s definitely going to raise our game.”

Three Heisman QBs atop the depth chart in one division is unprecedented in the modern NFL. Since the league adopted the eight-division format in 2002, only over two spans has a division had even two starting quarterbacks (barring injury): the 2013 NFC West (Sam Bradford, Palmer) and the NFC South from 2015-19 (Cam Newton, Jameis Winston).

The full list of AFC North Heisman winners is five: Jackson, Mayfield, Burrow, Ravens running back Mark Ingram and Jackson’s backup, Robert Griffin III. With Jackson sitting out, Griffin III beat the Steelers in the regular-season finale last year.

“Five … Heisman winners in the division, that’s a lot of good players,” Steelers linebacker Devin Bush said. “You are playing those teams twice a year, so that’s a lot of good games.”