As the Pittsburgh Steelers are waiting on Aaron Rodgers to give them an answer on if he'll play for the team or not this upcoming season, it doesn't mean the organization will stop looking at other options. With the Steelers preparing for the NFL Draft, there's no doubt the team is looking at the position with head coach Mike Tomlin teasing some of the options.
Speaking at the NFL annual meetings, Tomlin would be asked about the quarterback prospects that the team is looking at for the draft in late April. While he wouldn't say any names specifically, he revealed it by naming the schools of Riley Leonard, Will Howard, and Quinn Ewers respectively according to Steelers Wire.
“[General manager] Omar [Khan] and I just got off on a nice tour here last week, where we were at Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Texas, for example—our last three trips. I think all three of those institutions have quarterbacks that are draft eligible,” Tomlin said.
As Pittsburgh has the 21st overall pick in the draft, likely, such players as University of Miami's Cam Ward and University of Colorado's Shedeur Sanders won't be there. Unless they go after Ole Miss' Jaxson Dart, they could take a quarterback in the mid-rounds to develop behind Rodgers if he does sign.
Steelers being patient on Aaron Rodgers, scouting quarterbacks for draft
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin answers questions from the medianduring the NFL Annual League Meeting at The Breakers.
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Though people will speculate on where the team goes with the position, the Steelers met with Rodgers and seem set on making him the next starting quarterback, only if the 40-year-old accepts. However, the team is reportedly has no problem being “patient” with Rodgers during this time according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler and will be doing their due diligence in the draft.
“They're willing to be pretty patient,” Fowler said. “My sense is the Steelers remain optimistic here, and they are willing to wait. In fact, I've talked to several people in the quarterback market, including in and around Russell Wilson's free agency, who just figured that the Steelers must have gotten some sort of loose assurance from Rogers at some point that he was going to play there.”
“But it feels like right now the options are Steelers, retirement, or does he want to just wait three to four months on the Vikings to see if they change their mind, which seems unlikely at this point,” Fowler continued. “So the Steelers appear all in, I know they're doing a lot of homework on draft-eligible quarterbacks to potentially pull the trigger on one of those. They still have their sights set on Rogers. Timeline still is very loose here to figure that out.”
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While it remains to be seen who will be under center for Pittsburgh come next season, the team is looking to improve after finishing with a 10-7 record last season which was good for second in the AFC North.