{"id":868668,"date":"2026-04-17T21:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/868668\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:18:25","slug":"rooney-confirms-steelers-wont-draft-first-round-quarterback-probably-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/868668\/","title":{"rendered":"Rooney Confirms Steelers Won&#8217;t Draft First Round Quarterback: &#8216;Probably Not&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Steelers won\u2019t celebrate hosting the NFL Draft by christening it with a new first round franchise quarterback. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtae.com\/article\/steelers-draft-first-pick-not-quarterback\/71054274\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Speaking to WTAE\u2019s Andrew Stockey<\/a> in a pre-draft interview, owner Art Rooney II all-but confirmed the Steelers won\u2019t use their 21st overall pick on a quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I can tell you one thing, it\u2019s probably not going to be a quarterback,\u201d Rooney told Stockey. \u201cBut beyond that it\u2019s wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Select <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2026\/04\/ive-heard-they-do-like-ty-simpson-analyst-would-not-be-surprised-if-steelers-trade-back-into-first-round\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">draft analysts whispered<\/a> about the Steelers\u2019 secret like towards Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. But the team showed no overt signs in having interest. Mike McCarthy nor Omar Khan attended Simpson\u2019s Pro Day workout. Despite bringing in four passers for visits, Simpson wasn\u2019t among the group.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh has described wanting an \u201cAFC North\u201d quarterback. One with size and experience in the elements. Simpson, at about 6\u20191 and 211 pounds, who played down south, doesn\u2019t fit that bill.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh could draft a quarterback in the later rounds. Penn State\u2019s Drew Allar, Miami (FL)\u2019s Carson Beck, Arkansas\u2019 Taylen Green, and North Dakota State\u2019s Cole Payton came in for visits. Of that group, Allar might be the favorite.<\/p>\n<p>Rooney didn\u2019t tip his hand what position the Steelers could address. Wide receiver, offensive line, and secondary could all be landing spots. That will depend on how the board breaks in front of them Thursday night. Still, Rooney offered a key piece of information of what Pittsburgh\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0do Thursday night. But if their quarterback woes aren\u2019t\u2019 solved this time next year, it\u2019s doubtful Rooney will be able to rule out the position come 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers won\u2019t celebrate hosting the NFL Draft by christening it with a new first round franchise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[52264,4393,7,6,520,57,2360,426,691,20708],"class_list":{"0":"post-868668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-andrew-stockey","9":"tag-art-rooney-ii","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-trending","17":"tag-ty-simpson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116422135260705403","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868668","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=868668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}