{"id":872782,"date":"2026-04-23T13:54:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872782\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:54:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:54:32","slug":"mel-kiper-jr-highlights-two-qbs-to-keep-an-eye-on-for-steelers-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872782\/","title":{"rendered":"Mel Kiper Jr. Highlights Two QBs To ‘Keep An Eye On’ For Steelers This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers continue to wait for a decision from 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers, though all signs seem to point toward him ultimately returning for a second season with the Steelers, right around OTAs, too.<\/a><\/p>\n

But that hasn\u2019t stopped many from speculating about the Steelers and the quarterback position in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Throughout the pre-draft process there has been a big debate regarding the Steelers and the potential fit of Alabama\u2019s Ty Simpson in the first round. That seems very unlikely to happen. However, odds are good that the Steelers draft a quarterback with one of their 12 picks.<\/p>\n

For ESPN\u2019s NFL Draft guru Mel Kiper Jr., there are two quarterbacks to keep an eye on when it comes to the Steelers: Penn State\u2019s Drew Allar and Miami (FL)\u2019s Carson Beck.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might not be many Day 1 quarterbacks this week \u2014 and there might be only one \u2014 but there are a few guys to watch for teams like the Steelers and Jets on Day 2 and into the early parts of Day 3,\u201d Kiper writes.<\/a> \u201cKeep an eye on Miami\u2019s Carson Beck and Penn State\u2019s Drew Allar, who have the physical traits that Pittsburgh and New York want under center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are big, strong passers with solid arm strength. I could see those franchises looking at Beck and Allar in the third or fourth round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allar has long made sense for the Steelers<\/a> due to his size, being from Ohio and knowing how to play football in poor weather conditions. He has a big, strong arm, too, and took care of the football at a high level in college.<\/p>\n

However, in big games Allar shrunk from the moment, struggling in those pressure-packed situations. He never quite pushed the ball down the field, either and then suffered a season-ending broken ankle in 2025 after surprisingly returning to school for another season.<\/p>\n

But he definitely looks like that AFC North quarterback<\/a> GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike McCarthy have talked about coveting at the position.<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s Beck. He\u2019s generating some shocking first-round buzz leading up to the draft<\/a>, which makes very little sense. But from the Steelers\u2019 perspective, he checks a lot of boxes. Beck has the size and the high-level experience, having started more than 40 games in college.<\/p>\n

He had a ton of success at Georgia and then transferred to Miami (FL) and led the Hurricanes to the 2025 national championship game. The big concerns with Beck are his lack of athleticism in the pocket and arm strength due to the elbow injury he suffered at Georgia.<\/p>\n

The Steelers have been heavily connected other him though, and it would make sense<\/a> if his name is called by Pittsburgh late on Day 2 this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers continue to wait for a decision from 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers, though all signs seem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[4955,2037,1800,7,1771,6,520,57,2360,426,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-872782","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-drew-allar","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-mel-kiper-jr","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-pittsburgh","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","17":"tag-steelers","18":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116454363251476434","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872782","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=872782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}