The Pittsburgh Steelers spent much of the first week of college football sending scouts around the nation to take a close look at the 2026 NFL Draft quarterback class. Some of that was natural coincidence given the top quarterbacks facing off against each other this week in premier matchups.
However, Steelers scouts saw Texas QB Arch Manning, LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier, Clemson QB Cade Klubnik, South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers, Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt, and Miami QB Carson Beck all play over the weekend. That is not the entire class by any means, but it is a significant chunk of the top options.
It is a group that assistant general manager Andy Weidl says is more talented than the 2025 quarterback class in their early scouting.
“There’s some guys that are really talented coming out. There’s guys that can probably put it into a pocket. There’s guys that can put it into a pocket and win on the run. They have the skills as well. I don’t want to get too much into it right now,” Weidl said. “Whether they all come out, we’ll find out. We’ll do our work. We do it every year. We’ve got a great group of scouts. We’ve got continuity. This year is the first time. Last year and this year, we’ve been in the same group together. We’re expecting big things. We’ve talked about it.”
There can always be other players that arise from the group, too, much like Jayden Daniels did two years ago when soared to the second overall selection.
For the Steelers, they are projected to have 12 draft picks, which would give them plenty of draft capital and ammo to move up the board for a player they see as a franchise quarterback.
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