Even without a known long-term answer at quarterback, the Pittsburgh Steelers won\u2019t draft a quarterback simply to check a box. Asked if the Steelers are destined to use one of their dozen draft picks on a passer, GM Omar Khan said he doesn\u2019t feel obligated to address the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecific to that position in the draft, we\u2019re evaluating everything,\u201d Khan told NFL Network\u2019s Judy Battista in an interview that aired on The Insiders Tuesday.<\/a> \u201cBut no, we\u2019re not going into this saying, we have to take a quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is good news. Because the 2026 NFL Draft doesn\u2019t offer much in the way of options. It\u2019s one of the weakest quarterback classes in recent memory, with potentially just one first-round passer selected, inevitable No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza. Alabama\u2019s Ty Simpson is the only other player with a chance. Opinions on him vary wildly. <\/a><\/p>\n The 2026 group is the worst since 2022. Pittsburgh took the first and only quarterback of the top round, selecting Pitt\u2019s QB Kenny Pickett. It proved to be the wrong decision and felt like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Outgoing GM Kevin Colbert feeling compelled to leave the franchise with something at the position after Ben Roethlisberger\u2019s retirement.<\/p>\n To Khan and the Steelers\u2019 credit, that lesson has seemingly been learned. Pittsburgh could\u2019ve selected Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders in the \u201925 draft when many draftniks expected him to go in the first round. Instead, the Steelers focused on building up their defensive line and made a better selection in DL Derrick Harmon. Pittsburgh took QB Will Howard in the sixth, arguably a better prospect than Sanders, and a player the team is high on<\/a> despite not seeing him throw a pass inside a stadium last year.<\/p>\n Quarterback is a need. It\u2019s the most important position in sports. But aimlessly drafting one just for the sake of doing so is a plan destined to fail. If there isn\u2019t one worth taking, the Steelers are better off addressing other needs and waiting for the right opportunity to swing for the franchise\u2019s next future arm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even without a known long-term answer at quarterback, the Pittsburgh Steelers won\u2019t draft a quarterback simply to check…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,8738,6,1256,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-775425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-judy-battista","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-omar-khan","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116131395467500931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775425","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=775425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}