{"id":711642,"date":"2026-01-28T14:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/711642\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:26:16","slug":"steelers-pass-on-quarterback-in-latest-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/711642\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Pass on Quarterback in Latest Mock Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 NFL Draft<\/a>\u2022Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghDenzel Boston — Washington Athletics\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Steelers have some big decisions to make this offseason, with who their next starting quarterback will be arguably at the top. However, Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN believes they will opt to address another position of need in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Kiper Jr. predicts the Steelers will select Washington wide receiver Denzel Boston with the No. 21 overall pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to get a quarterback to the Steelers in this spot. It\u2019s possible Ole Miss\u2019\u00a0Trinidad Chambliss<\/a>\u00a0finds himself in the first-round conversation, obviously depending on what happens with his\u00a0NCAA eligibility lawsuit. But the other QBs in this class would be big reaches. I don\u2019t know what Pittsburgh will do under center or whether\u00a0Aaron Rodgers<\/a>\u00a0will play another season, but there doesn\u2019t appear to be an easy fix in Round 1 this year,\u201d Kiper Jr. wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, let\u2019s pivot to the rest of the offense and land a WR2 alongside\u00a0DK Metcalf<\/a>. We saw what happens when this offense loses Metcalf, as the Steelers managed just one passing touchdown over Weeks 17 and 18 while Metcalf was\u00a0suspended. But Boston runs strong routes and uses his physicality to box out defenders and make plays on the ball. He had 11 touchdowns this past season, including seven in the red zone. He\u2019d elevate the unit right out of the gate and take some weight off Metcalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston, 22, is certainly an intriguing player for Pittsburgh after reeling in 125 catches for 1,715 yards and 20 touchdowns over the past two years with the Huskies. He returned eight punts for 104 yards and a score, as well.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s no denying the Steelers obvious need at quarterback, especially after bringing in offensive-minded head coach Mike McCarthy<\/a> to develop their next single caller.<\/p>\n

In Kiper Jr.\u2019s mock draft, two quarterbacks were taken before Pittsburgh\u2019s pick \u2014 Indiana\u2019s Fernando Mendoza<\/a> first overall to the Las Vegas Raiders and Alabama\u2019s Ty Simpson<\/a> 16th overall to the New York Jets.<\/p>\n

So if that is how the board plays out come April, it would likely force the Steelers to address quarterback later on, but there is still plenty of time for things to change.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> Denzel Boston<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Washington Huskies<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft\u2022Steelers News Denzel Boston — Washington Athletics The Pittsburgh Steelers have some big decisions to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[4955,32198,7,6,520,57,2360,426,671],"class_list":{"0":"post-711642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-denzel-boston","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-washington-huskies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115973193466210412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711642","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=711642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}