Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t sure who their quarterback will be next season.
The 2026 NFL Draft’s crop of quarterbacks isn’t nearly as loaded as it was previously projected to be. Aaron Rodgers, the team’s signal-caller this season, will have to decide if he wants to continue his decorated career, and even then, that doesn’t mean he’d be returning to the Steel City now that Mike Tomlin is gone.
Former Steelers passer Ben Roethlisberger thinks Art Rooney II, Omar Khan and whoever they choose to be their head coach should follow the blueprint the franchise followed with him.
“I would not draft a quarterback for at least 2-3 years,” Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his podcast. “That’s just my opinion. … The issue that I see with a lot of teams is they get a quarterback, and they try to build around that quarterback. I think it should be the other way around. I think you should build a team and put your quarterback in it. It happened to me. I had a great football team. They plugged me in. We had a veteran group. It just works.
“It works better than trying to grab a quarterback and (being) like, ‘OK, we’re gonna build around this quarterback.’ Because then it’s gonna take you four or five years to build around that quarterback. He’s probably gonna look like poo up to it, then you’re like, ‘Is he really our guy or is he not our guy?’”
The Steelers went 15-1 during Roethlisberger’s first regular season. He won all 13 of his starts and was propped up the NFL’s best defense. He also had two dependable running backs in Jerome Bettis (941 yards) and Duce Staley (830).
The last time the Steelers chose a signal-caller in the first round, selecting Pitt’s Kenny Pickett with the No. 20 overall pick in 2022, he lasted just two seasons before being shipped off. Since Roethlisberger rode off into the sunset, the Steelers have started six different quarterbacks.
Roethlisberger also added that he’d like to see Ohio State Buckeyes product Will Howard, a sixth-round pick last year, get his shot.
“I love his heart, his fire, I think he is Pittsburgh,” Roethlisberger said. “I think he’s tough, he’s gritty, he’s going to get you what you want. Could be completely wrong, but I think you have a guy in there.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Big Ben Sees Huge Potential Mistake for Steelers in Draft
