{"id":862858,"date":"2026-04-10T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/862858\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T05:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:00:25","slug":"study-how-much-does-experience-matter-for-a-mike-mccarthy-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/862858\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: How Much Does Experience Matter For A Mike McCarthy Quarterback?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve spent plenty of time talking about what the Pittsburgh Steelers might look for at quarterback. Especially under the new head coach, Mike McCarthy, who is known for developing and coaching quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

Previously, we examined the team\u2019s words of wanting<\/a> an \u201cAFC North quarterback.\u201d A player who is big, tough, and can play in the cold. That\u2019s far from the only data point. What about experience? During his local media scrum with reporters (unfortunately, there\u2019s no video, so we\u2019re going off what beat writers have said), McCarthy noted a quarterback\u2019s floor can be more important than his ceiling. Which, in a sense, suggests experience matters. A \u201cknown\u201d product could be preferred to a boom\/bust player.<\/p>\n

What does McCarthy\u2019s history say? Let\u2019s examine the six quarterbacks drafted while he served as a franchise\u2019s head coach, and see if their college experience tells us anything about who Pittsburgh could target in 2026.<\/p>\n

Quarterback\/Round
\nCollege Starts<\/p>\n

Ingle Martin\/5th
\n31<\/p>\n

Matt Flynn\/7th
\n13<\/p>\n

Brian Brohm\/2nd
\n33<\/p>\n

BJ Coleman\/7th
\n29<\/p>\n

Brett Hundley\/5th
\n40<\/p>\n

Ben DiNucci\/7th
\n35<\/p>\n

Average
\n30.2<\/p>\n

Quick notes. Martin started four games at Florida before finishing up at Furman. DiNucci, the only quarterback drafted in Dallas, made six starts at Pitt and his final 29 at James Madison. Flynn is the outlier of the group, a one-year starter replacing JaMarcus Russell.<\/p>\n

But he also was a seventh-round \u201cflier\u201d of sorts and hardly drafted with the intent of being the team\u2019s franchise quarterback. In fact, he was the second quarterback the Packers drafted that year behind Brohm, who did not have a successful career.<\/p>\n

Still, the class average is 30 college starts (if you remove Flynn, the average becomes about 33). How does the 2026 class stack up? Using Dane Brugler\u2019s Top 10 quarterbacks from his \u201cThe Beast\u201d guide,<\/a> here\u2019s the group sorted from fewest to most starts.<\/p>\n

2026 QB Class (College Starts)<\/p>\n

Quarterback
\nCollege Starts<\/p>\n

Cole Payton\/NDSU
\n13<\/p>\n

Ty Simpson\/Alabama
\n15<\/p>\n

Garrett Nussmeier\/LSU
\n23<\/p>\n

Fernando Mendoza\/Indiana
\n35<\/p>\n

Drew Allar\/Penn State
\n35<\/p>\n

Cade Klubnik\/Clemson
\n40<\/p>\n

Carson Beck\/Miami (FL)
\n43<\/p>\n

Haynes King\/Georgia Tech
\n43<\/p>\n

Joe Fagnano\/UConn
\n45<\/p>\n

Taylen Green\/Arkansas
\n46<\/p>\n

Payton, Simpson, and Nussmeier fall well under the 30-start threshold. Payton and Simpson, especially. The rest are easily clear. If history repeats itself, the Steelers could gravitate toward someone like Allar, Beck, or Green. They have already brought in the latter two for pre-draft visits.<\/p>\n

None of this is ironclad or comes with a guarantee. Payton could still be on Pittsburgh\u2019s radar. But he would be an outlier. He has the same number of starts as Flynn, but Payton will require a higher draft pick than Flynn\u2019s seventh-round selection. Once the picks come in (and if the Steelers indeed draft a quarterback), it\u2019ll be worth revisiting this to see where that selection stacks up to McCarthy\u2019s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve spent plenty of time talking about what the Pittsburgh Steelers might look for at quarterback. Especially under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[4955,2037,75157,7,26759,7866,6,520,57,2360,426,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-862858","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-carson-beck","10":"tag-cole-payton","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-matt-flynn","13":"tag-mike-mccarthy","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-pittsburgh","16":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","17":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","18":"tag-steelers","19":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116378653387566098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862858","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=862858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}