Behind the Steel Curtain
The Steelers faced a litany of very good quarterbacks in 2025. Josh Allen, Caleb Williams, Jordan Love, Justin Herbert, Drake Maye, and the eventual Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold all crossed the Steelers’ path last season, on top of their two dates per year with Lamar Jackson.
When it comes to the quarterback position, the Steelers will face two of the five MVP finalists from a season ago, as well as familiar foes with chips on their respective shoulders. With that said, here are this year’s opposing quarterback rankings.
The Browns comfortably have the worst quarterback room in the NFL, as I pointed out when building the worst possible team for the 2026 NFL season. Of the 47 quarterbacks to play at least 100 snaps in 2025, Sanders ranks 46th in EPA per play and 45th in success rate. In Watson’s case, it’s even more impressive just how terrible he’s been.
Dating back to 2022, 76 quarterbacks have played 200+ snaps – Watson ranks 67th in adjusted EPA per play and 68th in success rate. Even worse for the Browns is that five of the bottom 10 quarterbacks all played for Cleveland.
It’s a real reverse Sophie’s Choice here for the Browns, as they have to choose which one of these quarterbacks to start for the season. Odds are, both will see considerable playing time.
Speaking of Sophie’s Choice, it’s the Atlanta Falcons. Both Michael Penix and Tua Tagovailoa are low-end quarterbacks. Tagovailoa finished 32nd in EPA per play in 2025 (min. 200 plays) while Penix finished 23rd. Both are also very limited athletes, and for Tagovailoa especially, it gets dire when the play breaks down and he isn’t in rhythm.
The Panthers aren’t a good team. They won the NFC South with a losing record, and there are very few high-end players on the roster. When looking at Young, 2025 feels like the absolute peak for him as a player – and even then, it wasn’t very good. Of the 40 quarterbacks to play at least 200 snaps, Young was 27th in success rate and 31st in EPA per play while throwing for just over 3,000 yards. The Panthers will finish at least five games under .500 and will have a new quarterback in 2027.
Seven quality games does not cancel out six years of poor quarterback play. Kudos to Jones for having a very good September-October, but the Colts fell apart in the second half of the season. He’s coming off the torn Achilles, as well, so it could be Anthony Richardson or Riley Leonard that the Steelers face in Week 5. Even if it is Jones, from Week 8 onward, he was 22nd in EPA per play (min. 100 plays).
When you think of the Broncos, you think of that great defense, not of Bo...
