{"id":978061,"date":"2026-08-20T05:45:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T05:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/978061\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T05:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T05:45:26","slug":"the-steelers-dont-know-who-their-2027-quarterback-will-be-they-know-hell-be-cheap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/978061\/","title":{"rendered":"The Steelers Don’t Know Who Their 2027 Quarterback Will Be. They Know He’ll Be Cheap."},"content":{"rendered":"

Who will replace Aaron Rodgers and start in 2027? That answer won\u2019t come for a while. Whoever inherits the throne, though, will come on a cheap contract. For as flexible and malleable as the salary cap is, there is one lesson from Pittsburgh writing checks to several big names of the 2023 draft class: EDGE Nick Herbig ($100 million<\/a>), DL Keeanu Benton ($72 million<\/a>), and TE Darnell Washington ($42 million<\/a>), with CB Joey Porter Jr. still possibly to come with the biggest deal yet.<\/p>\n

The Steelers don\u2019t plan on spending much at quarterback next year. An expensive veteran is not in the cards. It\u2019s likely a central reason why the franchise is spending so freely on everyone and everything else.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh can and still seems likely to sign Porter. Offensive linemen Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick are on the docket next year. As could Troy Fautanu, though the fifth-year option gives the Steelers more flexibility to wait. Through cuts and restructures, money can be created for them. Paying a veteran quarterback, like Baker Mayfield, is a lot harder to do.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no signal that Pittsburgh wants to go down that path. The Steelers have rolled through a string of veteran options: Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, and now Aaron Rodgers. By 2027, the franchise will be ready for a young option. Someone who can start long-term, and in the short-term, enjoy paying the position relative pennies. Whether that\u2019s Will Howard, Drew Allar, or a first-round rookie, the starter will make up just a fraction of the team\u2019s cap space.<\/p>\n

As much as Mike Florio wants to speculate about it (his theory being that Mayfield will take a discount<\/a> next year despite clearly wanting a market-level deal from Tampa Bay right now), Mayfield looks like a long shot. Pittsburgh\u2019s plan is to build the offensive and defensive lines, retain its top, young talent on both sides of the ball, and find a talented quarterback on a rookie contract for the QB-minded Mike McCarthy to develop.<\/p>\n

Many teams tank, rebuild, find the quarterback, and begin the window of spending to build around him. Pittsburgh is doing it a little differently. Invest in the roster before clearly identifying that quarterback, even as the team has two possibilities on the roster.<\/p>\n

With an exploding salary cap and all the financial tricks at Omar Khan\u2019s disposal, the Steelers can make the roster work in many ways. A pricey veteran quarterback might be the exception, and even if Pittsburgh had all the cap space in the world, they might prefer finding out what a youth movement can offer anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who will replace Aaron Rodgers and start in 2027? That answer won\u2019t come for a while. Whoever inherits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":978062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1842,7,5745,6,520,57,2360,426,691],"class_list":["post-978061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-football","tag-mike-florio","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers","tag-trending"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117126255350420300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978061","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=978061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/978062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}