{"id":860867,"date":"2026-04-08T12:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860867\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:29:13","slug":"espn-analyst-pairs-steelers-with-ideal-qb-fit-in-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860867\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Analyst Pairs Steelers With ‘Ideal’ QB Fit In Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers could be looking to target a quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft, and ESPN\u2019s Ben Solak believes that LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier is the \u201cperfect\u201d fit for the Steelers. Solak projected every quarterback selection in the draft<\/a> to try to find the \u201cideal\u201d landing spot for each quarterback. For Nussmeier, that was in Pittsburgh, with Solak predicting the Steelers take the LSU signal caller with the 99th overall pick in the third round.<\/p>\n

Solak writes that the connection between Nussmeier\u2019s dad, Doug, and Mike McCarthy plays a role. Doug served as quarterbacks coach for McCarthy during his time in Dallas. Solak praised Nussmeier\u2019s pocket presence and ball security while also being wary of his aggressiveness, particularly on early downs. To hone in on that, Solak believes Nussmeier would benefit from learning under Aaron Rodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident that Nussmeier is a sharp quarterback \u2014 sharp enough to run McCarthy \u2018s gun-heavy, dropback-heavy offense \u2014 but he needs some calibration in the risk management department. Rodgers, should he show any interest in developing a young quarterback behind him, would help there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers did a good job mentoring Will Howard last season, and if the Steelers draft another quarterback, there\u2019s little doubt Rodgers would take them under his wing along with Howard. He\u2019d continue to be one of the best mentors at the most important position in the league. And if the Steelers do select a quarterback, doing so with one of their three third-round selections would make a lot of sense. Without a lot of top-end quarterback talent in this year\u2019s class, the mid-round developmental quarterbacks include Nussmeier as well as Drew Allar, Carson Beck, and Cole Payton.<\/p>\n

Nussmeier is a player that the Steelers have done a decent amount of pre-draft legwork on. Director of Player Scouting Mark Sadowski attended his Pro Day at LSU, and the team had a formal meeting with him at the Combine. He\u2019s also reportedly going to come in for a pre-draft visit<\/a>, though the date for that is unknown.<\/p>\n

Solak had nine quarterbacks being selected in his exercise, and Nussmeier was the third off the board, behind Fernando Mendoza at 1.1 and Ty Simpson, whom he had the Arizona Cardinals trade back into the first round to select at No. 31 overall. Allar was the next quarterback, with Solak projecting him to the Miami Dolphins in the fourth round, while Beck, Taylen Green, Cole Payton, Cade Klubnik and Luke Altmyer rounded out the quarterback selections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers could be looking to target a quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft, and ESPN\u2019s Ben…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,16499,12,7,1802,6,520,57,2360,426,691,2183],"class_list":{"0":"post-860867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-ben-solak","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-garrett-nussmeier","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-pittsburgh","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","17":"tag-steelers","18":"tag-trending","19":"tag-will-howard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116369094653541573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860867","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=860867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}