While the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t have a franchise quarterback, Doug Whaley believes they are going about things the right way. Acquiring a franchise quarterback is arguably the most difficult thing to do in professional team sports. The vast majority of NFL teams don’t have one, and may not have one for decades at a time.
The Cleveland Browns, for example, have been back in the NFL for a quarter-century and have yet to find one. It was cute when they thought they were a real team trading for Deshaun Watson, but that didn’t work out. The Steelers are in Year 4 A.B.B. (After Big Ben), and the natives are growing restless.
But what Whaley sees them doing is building the foundation upon which to place a franchise quarterback. And in the meantime, they are producing a roster that he believes can compete. “When you have a quarterback, you need one person to play between 85-95 percent of his capabilities to have a chance to win. When you don’t have a quarterback, you need 21 other players playing at 90 percent to have a chance to win. Especially against good teams that have quarterbacks”, he said on 93.7 The Fan.
He went on to categorize the Steelers’ current approach as, “‘We don’t have that quarterback now. Let’s get everything else in place so we can at least be competitive. And then once we get that quarterback, then we can start elevating to a top-tier team in the NFL’”.
“I applaud the process. I applaud the plan, and the thought behind it of, ‘Let’s be competitive until we can find that’”, Whaley said of the Steelers’ current state. “And now with the amount of picks they have next year they have that flexibility”.
The Steelers wasted no time searching for that elusive franchise quarterback after Ben Roethlisberger retired. In the subsequent draft, they selected Kenny Pickett in the first round, the first quarterback off the board. Of course, if that draft class were even remotely tolerable, he wouldn’t have been available at 20.
After seeing enough of Pickett for two years, the Steelers pivoted and signed Russell Wilson. It’s unclear exactly under what parameters they viewed that relationship, but it was a marriage of convenience. For both parties, it provided at least a short-term boost, which is what it turned out to be.
This year, the Steelers passed on the opportunity to draft any quarterback but Cam Ward, the first overall pick. At the moment, they are still waiting for Aaron Rodgers, another quasi-marriage of convenience. Although with each passing day, the situation feels less and less convenient.
But with the 2026 NFL Draft taking place in Pittsburgh, the Steelers have a golden opportunity. Not because of the location, but because of their projected resources. They have already acquired an additional third-round pick by trading George Pickens, and they will likely earn at least one third-round compensatory pick, if not two. That ammunition alone won’t get them into the top 10 to draft a quarterback, assuming they land in their usual range. But it will certainly help, and the team has been conscious of its draft stockpile for 2026.
