{"id":867938,"date":"2026-04-16T21:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/867938\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:00:30","slug":"florio-steelers-pre-draft-qb-homework-not-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/867938\/","title":{"rendered":"Florio: Steelers Pre-Draft QB Homework Not Deception"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"categories\"><a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/nfl-draft\/2026-nfl-draft\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">2026 NFL Draft<\/a>\u2022<a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1-27-2026-Mike-McCarthy-Introduction-23.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy during his introductory press conference on Jan. 27, 2026. &#8212; Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted four quarterbacks on pre-draft visits over the last month, preparing for next week\u2019s 2026 NFL Draft. Mike McCarthy\u2019s team closely studied Miami\u2019s Carson Beck, North Dakota State\u2019s Cole Payton, Arkansas\u2019 Taylen Green and Penn State\u2019s Drew Allar.<\/p>\n<p>Pro Football Talk\u2019s Mike Florio believes the Steelers\u2019 interest in adding a signal-caller is legitimate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome coaches and GMs would say, \u2018You draft a quarterback every year, just to have one and see what he becomes,&#8217;\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/broadcasts\/1BdxYZPjlqQKX\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Florio said<\/a> Wednesday on 93.7 The Fan. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked about this before, the notion that the Will Howard love is just bluster, puffery aimed at creating a smokescreen so people won\u2019t suspect them \u2014 whether it\u2019s Round 1, Round 2, Round 7 or any in-between \u2014 when they\u2019re on the clock. You don\u2019t wanna get leapfrogged by somebody who\u2019s thinking, \u2018Hey, the Steelers may take the quarterback that we want here. We better jump them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Steelers, I don\u2019t think, waste a lot of their time pre-draft on smokescreens, so I think you\u2019ve gotta take at face value. Yeah, they\u2019re looking. They\u2019re kicking tires. They\u2019re gonna examine their options.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers are also still waiting on veteran passer Aaron Rodgers to decide whether he wants to return to Pittsburgh for a second season. He went 10-6 as their starter last go-round, passing for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s current quarterbacks are Will Howard, who didn\u2019t take an in-game snap last season, and Mason Rudolph. Rudolph has been a backup for the Steelers for most of his career.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/2026-nfl-draft\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">2026 NFL Draft<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/mike-florio\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Florio<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft\u2022Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy during his introductory press conference on Jan. 27,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[4955,7,5745,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-867938","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-football","10":"tag-mike-florio","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116416403786472496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867938","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=867938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}