Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert made it known again on Thursday in his interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio that he is open to drafting any position in any round in the upcoming draft and that includes quarterback.
Colbert was asked during the interview if he would look at drafting a quarterback in the upcoming draft and start planning for the future with both Charlie Batch and Byron Leftwich being long in the tooth.
“Absolutely,” Colbert said. “You have to address it and your not going to address it long term via free agency. That\’s just not going to happen in our situation. You might be able to get a younger backup in the mix and that\’s something we\’ll take a look at, but you do have to think about the future, because none of our players are going to last forever.
“Quarterback is not unique to that at all in our thinking, so we\’ll be open to any position in any round. As far as the quarterback group that\’s in this draft, there might not be the marquee Andrew Luck or RG3 (Robert Griffin III) in this group, but as we learned last year with Russell Wilson … fourth round, right? Third round.”
This is not the first time that we have heard Colbert say that he is open to drafting any position in any round as he said the same thing after the season ended. While there is a possibility that the Steelers will draft a quarterback, it is hard to imagine that they will do so in the first three rounds.
The Steelers will find out next month what round their compensatory pick will be in that they are expected to receive for William Gay, who left last offseason via free agency to sign with the Arizona Cardinals. That pick might wind up being the perfect one to use on a quarterback, depending of course on how high or low it winds up being and what is left on the board at that time.
While he didn\’t say it specifically, Colbert certainly makes it seem like he is now willing to move on now from Batch or Leftwich, and perhaps even both. The two veteran quarterbacks are both unrestricted free agents once again this offseason.
