Since the Pittsburgh Steelers are either unable or unwilling to bottom out to embrace a rebuild and draft their franchise quarterback of the future, they have been stuck firmly in the middle of the NFL. Drafting in the 20s every season makes it extremely difficult to land the right quarterback, and the one attempt they made with Kenny Pickett set them back even further in their quest to find the next Ben Roethlisberger.
Ryan Clark offered some thoughts on the Steelers’ QB purgatory via Green Light with Chris Long.
“I think Aaron [Rodgers] is gonna play well. I actually do. And I think the team’s gonna be good, like 10-win team. And guess what? Next year, you’re still looking for a quarterback,” Clark said Tuesday. “I said it on TV and people got mad at me. We need to be atrocious. They need to be awful. And so to me the only answer is, with the picks you have, you sell the farm to get the guy.”
Despite an offseason of trades and uncharacteristic moves, the Steelers have managed to not only keep their 2026 draft capital intact but add to it along the way.
Their free agency moves were made with the compensatory-pick system in mind. The Steelers are projected to receive the maximum possible of four comp picks.
George Pickens returned them a 2026 third-round pick in a trade with the Dallas Cowboys. And even their trade for Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith utilized 2027 draft capital to avoid weakening their strategy next offseason.
It seems clear that the Steelers will go all-in on trading up to draft a quarterback next offseason. Will Howard—as much as people may want him to work out—is a sixth-round rookie. Unless they want to risk continuing in their quarterback purgatory, 2026 is their best chance to get out of it.
The 2026 QB class looks good on paper, but that could change in a hurry with injuries, players returning to college, and underperforming expectations. I’ll remind everybody that Quinn Ewers was widely viewed as a potential first-round QB before the 2025 season and ended up getting selected in the seventh with one of the final picks of the draft.
Omar Khan and the Steelers have not been shy about making splashy moves with plenty of risk involved, but trading the farm to move up in the draft will easily take the cake as the move with the highest stakes yet.
