{"id":305320,"date":"2025-08-21T07:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T07:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/305320\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T07:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T07:24:15","slug":"steelers-land-lsu-standout-qb-in-way-too-early-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/305320\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Land LSU Standout QB in Way-Too-Early Mock Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 NFL Draft<\/a> Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghGarrett Nussmeier, LSU Athletics\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Field Yates of ESPN<\/a> has the Pittsburgh Steelers landing LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier at 16th overall in his way-too-early 2026 NFL mock draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be the second time in three years we saw six quarterbacks in the top half of Round 1. But hey, there are a lot of QB-needy teams picking early, and there are a lot of really good QB prospects potentially available. And Aaron Rodgers recently said<\/a> this could be his last NFL season, probably making QB a primary need in Pittsburgh next offseason,\u201d Yates wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cNussmeier \u2014 the son of Saints offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier \u2014 is like a point guard on the field, playing with elite processing skills and very good accuracy. He lacks dynamic athleticism and has just solid arm strength, but he is still able to deliver the ball on time and to spots where his receivers can create after the catch. Nussmeier \u2014 who is dealing with patellar tendinitis \u2014 threw for 4,052 yards and 29 touchdowns last season at LSU.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne more QB prospect who could be in the mix: Indiana\u2019s Fernando Mendoza. He has an impressive ability to process and play under duress, and I saw some \u201cwow\u201d throws on tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nussmeier, who stands at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, completed 64.2% of his passes for 4,052 yards with 29 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and passer rating of 142.7 in his first season as a starter at LSU.<\/p>\n

Eighteen-year NFL Scout and former director of the Reese\u2019s Senior Bowl, Jim Nagy, thought Nussmeier had the \u201chighest ceiling in the NFL Draft\u201d<\/a> when it came to the quarterback class in 2025. Nussmeier decided to play another year at LSU, however.<\/p>\n

Dane Brugler of The Athletic, who also has the Steelers landing Nussmeier in the first round in his way-too-early 2026 mock draft, sees shades of Tony Romo in the LSU signal-caller.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see so much Tony Romo with him. Wouldn\u2019t be shocked at a similar career,\u201d Brugler wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghGarrett Nussmeier. Gus Stark \/ LSU Athletics<\/p>\n

Todd McShay of The Ringer has Indiana dual-threat Fernando Mendoza landing with the Steelers at 15th overall in his way-too-early 2026 mock draft<\/a>. Mendoza continues to be mentioned as a rising player in next year\u2019s draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAaron Rodgers is a one-year solution, and sixth-round round pick Will Howard looks more like a good career backup than the quarterback of the future. Mendoza isn\u2019t there yet, but I saw a lot of positives \u2014 including a snappy release, excellent touch, and a plus arm \u2014 in his tape this summer,\u201d McShay wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McShay has four quarterbacks going in the first round \u2014 Clemson\u2019s Cade Klubnik to the Cleveland Browns at No. 1 overall, LSU\u2019s Garrett Nussmeier to the New York Jets at No. 4, South Carolina\u2019s LaNorris Sellers to the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 6 and Mendoza to the Steelers at No. 15.<\/p>\n

McShay projects that Penn State\u2019s Drew Allar will fall out of the first round, while Texas\u2019 Arch Manning will not declare for the draft.<\/p>\n

Mendoza spent his first three seasons at California with the Golden Bears, where he posted over 3,000 passing yards in a breakout redshirt sophomore campaign. This past offseason, he entered the transfer portal and ultimately chose to take his talents to Indiana, where he\u2019ll suit up for the Hoosiers this fall. Standing at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds with a strong arm, Mendoza fits the mold of a traditional pocket passer but also brings underrated athleticism to the position.<\/p>\n

Mendoza was Derrick Bell of Steelers Now\u2019s No. 1 QB coming out of early summer scouting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe physical tools are intriguing: he\u2019s got good size and a howitzer for an arm, but his advanced feel for the game is what makes him most unique amongst his peers,\u201d Bell wrote. \u201cSo many of his best reps last season came in high-leverage situations with a less than stellar supporting cast.\u00a0He\u2019s accurate, aspires to play on-time football from the pocket, all while still being athletic enough for the next level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously some projection baked in here with this sort of outlook. He needs to cut down on some of the negative plays, but you\u2019d rather a young player try things and work through mistakes rather than have to be coaxed into aggressiveness down the line. Even if it requires a trade up into the top ten, the Steelers cannot afford to wait any longer to make a splash at the sport\u2019s most important position. No more half measures! With the NFL Draft in their own backyard<\/a>, this has a chance to be one of the more iconic moments in recent memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lance Zierlein<\/a> of NFL.com projects the Steelers to have four compensatory picks in the 2026 NFL Draft \u2014 one in Round 3, one in Round 4, one in Round 5 and one in Round 6. In total, the Steelers are expected to have 12 picks.<\/p>\n

The loaded crop of quarterbacks in 2026 is good news for the Steelers, as they are in desperate need of a franchise QB. The extra picks also give general manager Omar Khan ammunition to trade up in the draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Steelers assistant general manager Andy Weidl thinks the 2026 QB class is better than the 2025 group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to be. Now whether they all come out, we\u2019ll find out. We\u2019ll do our work. We do every year. We have a great group of scouts,\u201d Weidl said on Thursday. \u201cThat continuity this year, it\u2019s the first time from last year, this year, we\u2019ve had the same group together. We\u2019re expecting big things, we talked about it. It\u2019s a great opportunity for our staff to have all these picks and see how this year plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> ESPN<\/a> Fernando Mendoza<\/a> Field Yates<\/a> Garrett Nussmeier<\/a> LSU Tigers<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft Steelers News Garrett Nussmeier, LSU Athletics Field Yates of ESPN has the Pittsburgh Steelers landing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4955,12,3619,6118,7,1802,7211,6,15,57,426,2395],"class_list":{"0":"post-305320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-fernando-mendoza","11":"tag-field-yates","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-garrett-nussmeier","14":"tag-lsu-tigers","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nfl-draft","17":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","18":"tag-steelers","19":"tag-steelers-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}