The Pittsburgh Steelers need a long-term answer at quarterback. But in a 2026 draft class without many options, the team won’t force the pick and make the same mistake it did with Kenny Pickett. Per the PPG’s Gerry Dulac, the Steelers have no intention of using the 21st overall pick on a QB. Instead, the team will wait until the later rounds.
“The Steelers have little if no intention of taking a quarterback with their top pick because they think there is only one — Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza — worthy of going in the first round,” Dulac wrote in a Monday morning article.
Presumably, that means the team does not have a first-round grade on Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. A prospect who broke out the first half of the 2025 college football season to go from off the draft’s radar and into the Round 1 conversation. A poor end to his season including an especially bad Rose Bowl performance muted that buzz. Healthy for the NFL Combine, Simpson had a good on-field workout, but that performance coupled with a formal interview with the Steelers apparently didn’t change the franchise’s mind.
Fernando Mendoza and Simpson are considered the only two possible and viable first-round quarterbacks by the draft community. Dulac thinks Friday night could be when Pittsburgh considers an addition.
“It’s more than likely it wouldn’t be until the third round,” Dulac wrote of when a quarterback may be drafted though he hardly guaranteed it will happen.
Consistent with our tracker, Dulac confirmed Pittsburgh held formal Combine interviews with three quarterbacks: Miami (FL)’s Carson Beck, Penn State’s Drew Allar, and Simpson. Beck once had first-round buzz but faltered later in his college career. Allar brings prototypical size and had a great Combine workout but is coming off a bad season and severe ankle injury. LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier is another name worth mentioning and could be the third quarterback drafted in April.
A third-round pick wouldn’t feel like a pure backup calculation but would that selection signal franchise-leading potential? Like Mason Rudolph nearly a decade ago, it’s a little in between and hard to read. At the least, such a selection would give Pittsburgh another young option alongside Will Howard in the hopes with enough swings, the franchise will hit on an answer.
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