The Pittsburgh Steelers have five draft picks in the top 100 selections and potentially a question mark at quarterback as the Aaron Rodgers saga drags on with no answer yet. With their abundance of picks in the first two days of the hometown draft, should we expect a quarterback to be a priority pick in the draft? Of course, that answer will also depend on the players available and what the rest of the league does at the position, but according to NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein, this year’s draft might be light on early-round QB selections. Historically light.
“You have to go back to 2013 to find a draft where fewer than at least four quarterbacks were taken inside the top 100 picks,” Zierlein tweeted Saturday morning. “I feel like we see that happen again in the 2026 draft.
You have to go back to 2013 to find a draft where fewer than at least four quarterbacks were taken inside the top 100 picks. I feel like we see that happen again in the 2026 draft. pic.twitter.com/yCbb1quEDk
— Lance Zierlein (@LanceZierlein) April 4, 2026
Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza is the presumptive number one overall selection. Ty Simpson from Alabama figures to go somewhere in the first two rounds, and many have connected the dots that the Steelers may be interested, mostly due to the lack of a clear starter on the roster. After those two, names like Miami QB Carson Beck, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar, and Arkansas’s Taylen Green make up the next wave of QB prospects, but opinions vary about where they will ultimately fall.
The Steelers currently hold picks 21, 53, 76, 85, and 99, so they will have ample opportunity to select a QB early if they so choose. But if they don’t view any prospect as having the potential to be an eventual starter, they will likely pass. In a class that was hyped just one year ago for the number of potential first-round quarterbacks, some label the 2026 QB class as filled with backups. If the Steelers feel the same way, they may ultimately skip the position early, feeding into Zierlein’s prediction.
With the Steelers lacking a franchise QB of the future and a thin QB class, it’s easy to draw comparisons to the 2022 draft when Pittsburgh selected Kenny Pickett with the 20th overall selection, making him the first quarterback taken. Although there ultimately ended up being four QBs taken in the top 100 (Desmond Ridder, Malik Willis, and Matt Corral were the others), none of them were taken before the third round.
Obviously, that draft lacked the star power that Mendoza brings to the 2026 class, but with the Steelers selecting in the early twenties again and the Pickett selection not working out, it may be even more of an incentive to steer clear of the position this year in what is considered a weak draft.
In the infamous 2013 draft mentioned by Zierlein, the Steelers selected QB Landry Jones with the 115th overall selection. He played out his career as a backup, only starting five games. Some believe that many of the names that will be available early in this draft might well have the same fate. And history could be in the making.
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