MOBILE, Alabama—”I think it’s our best roster,” said event director Jim Nagy to open things up at the 76th annual Senior Bowl event. While the 2025 NFL Draft class has solid depth—more so than last year when he said they struggled to put together a draft board beyond the fourth or fifth round—the top of the first round leaves some to be desired. A lot of that has to do with the quarterbacks in this draft class.
The top of a great draft class typically has anywhere from three to five quarterback prospects who are regarded as possible franchise quarterbacks. Just last year, there was Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix, Drake Maye, Michael Penix Jr., and J.J. McCarthy. They all had varied levels of success, apart from McCarthy, who was injured for the season during his preseason debut.
Nagy isn’t sure any of this year’s quarterbacks can match up against last year’s top six.
“I think there’s good depth to the class. I think there’s some good guys. I think there’s some guys that the league is still trying to figure out for different reasons,” he said. “It’s certainly not last year. I don’t know if anyone in this class would be in the top six of the guys last year.”
That’s not to say there are zero quarterbacks in this class capable of becoming franchise quarterbacks, but it speaks to how strong the 2024 class was. They looked good in the pre-draft process. Reflecting back after the season, they look even better, with Nix and Daniels standing out from the rest.
“That was just a unique class. I think we’re gonna look back in 15 years; the class of 2024 is one of the best classes ever,” Nagy said.
The Steelers need a quarterback badly. They haven’t been able to get over the hump in the playoffs for the last decade, largely because of the lack of a top-end quarterback. Even at the twilight of Ben Roethlisberger’s career, I wouldn’t have put him in that category.
Team president Art Rooney II spoke with the media earlier today and strongly suggested that they need to solve the quarterback issue. They will likely retain one of either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields, but he said they will look to the draft either this year or next.
They took a swing in 2022 by making Kenny Pickett the first quarterback off the board. That entire quarterback class ended up striking out, except Brock Purdy, who was selected with the final pick of the draft.
Is the 2025 class shaping up to be like the 2022 class, or are there some diamonds in the rough? That will be the key question for the Steelers’ brass to figure out. Are they better suited to wait for 2026, which already looks a little stronger?
The original question that had Nagy talking about the quarterback class was about two players in particular: Alabama QB Jalen Milroe and Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart.
“To answer that, yeah, Jalen Milroe and Jaxson Dart, I think, are two guys that the league is really excited to see here,” Nagy said. “I say that, especially with Jaxson Dart, my phone probably pinged more when we announced him than any other quarterback.”
Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward are being talked about as the top two quarterbacks in the class. Milroe and Ohio State QB Will Howard are in that next tier, and then there are some wild cards like Dillon Gabriel, Riley Leonard, and Dart.
This week of practices at the Senior Bowl should give us a better idea of Dart, Leonard, Gabriel, and Milroe, and the Steelers’ brass is typically very involved in Mobile.
The perception of a weak class could play into the Steelers’ hands if they have a first-round grade on a guy that falls to them with the No. 21 overall pick. Kevin Colbert had a first-round grade on Mason Rudolph, for example. They might even be able to find some value in the second round if the league is really that low on the class.
