Playing host for the 2026 NFL Draft, the Steelers have their eyes on a quarterback—but is anybody worth it? Enthusiasm for this upcoming quarterback class has dampened considerably as the 2025 college football season has worn on. Never mind the Arch Manning talk, there just don’t seem to be any great players at the position so far.
That was the assessment of draft expert Daniel Jeremiah, who discussed the inbound quarterback class for the 2026 NFL Draft, though he didn’t focus on the Steelers or any other team. “There’s not that buzz of being like, ‘Man, thank goodness we’ve got the first or second overall pick’”, he said on The Rich Eisen Show. “At this point in time, I would say that there’s some good. I don’t know that I’ve necessarily seen some great”.
Of course, the last time the Steelers were in the market for a quarterback in the first round, they found themselves out of luck. The fact that they had their pick of every quarterback 20th overall didn’t dissuade them from taking Kenny Pickett. Two years later, they traded him, and he’s already on his 18th different team (approximately). So what options might they have?
“The two names that you hear more than any other [Fernando] Mendoza at Indiana, he’s a good player, and Ty Simpson at Alabama”, Jeremiah said in assessing the quarterback class for the 2026 NFL Draft. But he had plenty of qualifiers in assessing their potential.
“Neither one of these guys approach the grade level of the [2024] class with Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams”, he said. “I would say even below Cam Ward from last year in terms of the grade that they’ll be carrying. And there’s a bunch of other guys that coming into the year I thought would be no-brainers to come out. LaNorris Sellers was my favorite one. He just hasn’t quite had the year that he’d like to have”.
It’s telling, but obviously not surprising, that Jeremiah only gave a passing mention to Arch Manning. Basically all he said was that he’s obviously not coming out of school next year. And he’s not the only preseason high-value prospect to fall off a cliff. Rolling into November, the Steelers’ quarterback options for the 2026 NFL Draft are not looking pretty.
And if that continues to be the case, they will likely try to talk Aaron Rodgers into playing another season. Of course, the Steelers did draft a quarterback just this year, sixth-round pick Will Howard. And he recently just started practicing after spending the season up to this point on the Reserve/Injured list.
But surely the Steelers aren’t foolish enough to view Howard as their future franchise quarterback. In reality, he should have zero impact on their plans at quarterback for the 2026 NFL Draft. At least, it shouldn’t affect their plans for the early rounds. Maybe it saves them from drafting another backup, but they don’t have their answer on the roster right now.
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