The Pittsburgh Steelers have done their homework on North Dakota State QB Cole Payton. The team attended his Pro Day and also hosted him for a pre-draft visit, and with a chance the Steelers take a quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft, Payton is a name to know. He has one big supporter in NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay, who went on The Rich Eisen Show today and gave Payton a lot of praise.
“Cole Payton is the most underrated prospect in the entire draft. I think he’s a Day 2 pick and he’s going to surprise some people coming out of North Dakota State,” McShay said.
Payton is athletic with a big arm, but there are concerns about his accuracy and his mechanics. He’s an intriguing flier for a team to take, but it’s interesting to hear McShay call Payton a Day 2 pick. That would put him in the same tier as players such as Penn State’s Drew Allar and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, and there could be a run on quarterbacks in Day 2.
In our scouting report, Alex Kozora gave Payton a Day 3 grade and compared him to Tim Tebow. Payton can use his legs well, but he needs to improve as a thrower to become an NFL starter, but McShay seems to see the upside with Payton. The Steelers are obviously intrigued too, given the legwork they’ve done on him pre-draft. He’s been a popular mock draft selection to the Steelers, although usually later than Day 2. It’ll be interesting to see if Pittsburgh values him as a Day 2 prospect with other needs the team could look to address earlier in the draft.
The discussion about Payton stemmed from McShay making it clear he values Alabama QB Ty Simpson as a tier above the Payton/Nussmeier/Allar group and believes Simpson should be a first-round pick. While the Steelers haven’t shown much interest in him pre-draft, he’s another potential option for them if they want to address quarterback early in the draft. But the legwork they’ve done on Payton makes him a more obvious candidate to be selected, and if the team feels Mike McCarthy can develop him, it could be a great pick.
There are definitely more questions than answers right now with Payton, though there’s certainly a high ceiling if he can figure everything out. With McCarthy’s experience working with young quarterbacks, it could be a flier well worth taking.
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