In an offseason full of speculation about Malik Willis, Mac Jones, and Kyler Murray, ESPN analyst Evan Cohen is offering a new quarterback for whom the Pittsburgh Steelers should consider making a blockbuster trade. The Detroit Lions’ Jared Goff. Cohen suggested new head coach Mike McCarthy make a big splash to begin his Steelers tenure.

“If I were the Pittsburgh Steelers, would I give you my first-round pick for Jared Goff? I would. I would,” Cohen said on ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike Tuesday morning.

Cohen is a regular at big offseason trade ideas. He was a regular proponent of trading EDGE T.J. Watt the past two years, a suggestion some would argue he was right about. He finger-wagged Pittsburgh for not selling the farm for Matthew Stafford and thought the team should buy low on Will Levis. 

Goff sits somewhere between those quarterback suggestions. Not the elite passer Stafford is. Not the reclamation projection Levis would be. Cohen sees him in the sweet spot.

“He’s young enough at 31 years old where I could get five years out of him better than anything that I’ve had over the last five years, right?” he said.

Goff could play another five years, the duration of McCarthy’s contract with the team. The question is how far Pittsburgh could go with him. He’s coming off back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons and threw for an impressive 34 touchdowns to just eight interceptions a year ago. Production the Steelers simply haven’t had in years.

But the tape suggests he’s, at best, a borderline top-10 quarterback, and he struggled in Detroit’s Week 16 loss to Pittsburgh. Though all quarterbacks benefit from a solid supporting cast, Goff could regress if he’s away from Detroit’s indoor stadium and is forced to play outdoors in December at Acrisure.

Flipping a first rounder for him isn’t the best long-term plan. On the other side, it’s fair to argue Pittsburgh isn’t spending a first-round pick on a quarterback this year anyway so there’s no “risk” in choosing Goff over a 2026 blue-chip prospect. Still, a better plan is to use that pick elsewhere and potentially make an aggressive move for a quarterback in the 2027 NFL Draft.

Goff, at best, could keep Pittsburgh afloat and win a playoff game. But it’s doubtful he’s the answer to lead the Steelers on a true run or keep a Super Bowl window open for several years, making a first-round pick a bad investment. Not to mention that Detroit likely has little interest in such a radical move.