NFL free agency begins in a few days, and we’re still wondering who will play quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2026. It’s an all-too-familiar story, though this year feels more certain with a lot of buzz about Aaron Rodgers returning. If Rodgers opts to play another season, the Steelers will, barring injury, have the same starting quarterback Week 1 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since Ben Roethlisberger retired. But re-signing Rodgers isn’t the only quarterback move that Pittsburgh will make this offseason, predicts Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic.
In an article predicting what QB-needy teams do this offseason, Rosenblatt has the Steelers re-signing Rodgers and drafting LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier.
“Nobody ever really knows what Rodgers is going to do, but it feels like a safe bet that he returns for one more year and the chance to reunite with old friend Mike McCarthy,” he wrote. “LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier would be an interesting target in the second round, where the Steelers pick 53rd.”
There are connections between Nussmeier and the Steelers. His father, Doug, worked under Mike McCarthy in Dallas, and the Steelers held a formal meeting with Nussmeier at the NFL Combine. If the Steelers do opt to take a quarterback on Day 2, Nussmeier is the one who checks the most boxes.
In this scenario, Rosenblatt decided that Nussmeier was good enough to bring in and usurp Will Howard on the depth chart. McCarthy and Omar Khan have sung Howard’s praises throughout this offseason, but he’s a former sixth-round pick who doesn’t have any in-stadium experience. Bringing back Rodgers would help Howard’s development, but the Steelers may not be in a spot to pass up a quarterback they like even with Howard on the roster.
It’ll be interesting to see how the team handles the quarterback position during the draft. The Steelers will bring four quarterbacks to training camp, as they always do, and re-signing Rodgers would give them with three on the roster in Rodgers, Howard and Mason Rudolph. Drafting Nussmeier early, like the second round as Rosenblatt suggests, almost assures him to be set up to be “the guy” in the future. The Steelers could also wait and take a late-round flier on a developmental quarterback or potentially sign an undrafted free agent at the position. That’s the route they took in 2024 with John Rhys Plumlee and 2023 with Tanner Morgan.
Taking a young quarterback with the hopes of developing him isn’t a bad move, but with a lot of holes on their roster, investing a second-round pick in Nussmeier may not be the best course of action. But the Steelers drafting a quarterback in April seems likely, and where they do say will say a lot about how they truly feel about Howard.
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