The Steelers hosted quarterback prospects Carson Beck and Cole Payton for pre-draft visits this week, according to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, signaling their interest in some of this class’ less-heralded passers.
At the moment, Pittsburgh does not have a clear starting quarterback for the 2026 season or beyond. 2025 sixth-rounder Will Howard did not play a snap as a rookie, and the Mason Rudolph experiment is probably not worth another try. 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers is poised to reunite with his old head coach Mike McCarthy, but he is hardly a long-term proposition for a Steelers team that has lacked a true franchise quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger‘s retirement in 2022.
But the 2026 draft class is weak at the position, for the third time in five years. The Steelers’ perennial winning seasons under Mike Tomlin always kept them out of range of a top prospect, and this year will be no different. Fernando Mendoza is widely expected to be taken by the Raiders with the first overall pick; the consensus QB2, Ty Simpson, should be available to the Steelers at No. 21, but is not seen as a surefire NFL starter after just one year leading Alabama’s offense.
Pittsburgh may instead look to add another developmental arm to their quarterback room in April. Beck, 23, started for two seasons at Georgia with SEC-highs in attempts, completions, and yards in 2024. He doubled his interception total from six to 12 the following year, leading the conference, causing him to transfer to Miami to rebuild his draft stock. Beck led the ACC with a 72.4% completion percentage, but threw another 12 interceptions including a game-ender in January’s national championship loss to Indiana.
Payton earned North Dakota State’s starting job in 2025 and led the Bison to an undefeated 12-0 season, though they fell to Illinois State in the second round of the FCS playoffs. The 23-year-old only averaged 209 passing yards per game with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions, but he was the highest-graded quarterback in college football by Pro Football Focus. Payton also put up an excellent testing performance at the Combine, ranking among the top three quarterbacks in every drill.
Pryor also notes that the Steelers hosted Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez for a visit. He led the Big 12 in solo tackles in each of the last two seasons with an FBS-high seven forced fumbles in 2025. The Nagurski and Bednarik winner did not post elite numbers in Indianapolis, but still had a solid all-around day with the fastest three-cone and short shuttle numbers at his position. With questions about his athleticism answer, Rodriguez has risen to No. 45 on NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah’s rankings and could very well hear his name called on Day 2 of April’s draft.
Idk what this franchise is thinking. Years of letting other teams be aggressive in securing their franchise qb, the Steelers do nothing. Actually, they do worse which is retread the position and try to fool fans all is well with a barely above .500 record and nothing to show for it.
The Colts are lucky the Steelers made this their thing, because it has certainly been the same story in Indy with less winning even though Ballard finally pulled the trigger on Richardson that one time.
Pulled the trigger or wasted a blue chip 1st rd pick slot on a project QB that 1. they never intended to give enough time to develop and 2. ~2/3rds of the league knew would be a bust regardless
I’m not suggesting Payton is another Rodgers or Love, but McCarthy has a record of stashing and developing eventual franchise QBs.
McCarthy was gone before the Packers drafted Love.
Payton could do very well developing in Pittsburgh
One prospect who might have no ceiling and one who might have no floor.
Becks like 32, same issue as with Rodgers.
Hey, he’s three years younger than Tyler Shough.
I guess if you have dyscalcula because he’s not 32. He’s 23. He has the prototypical size for an NFL QB but he needs to be in the right situation.
He’s been in college for like 8 years. It was sarcasm
Noted. But while that used to be an issue, they get paid and treated better than ever before. Anyone making fun of long collegiate careers better start getting used to that not being a valid criticism going forward.
All that money spread across the team that has no QB to set the offensive direction. Cart before the horse. Defense is useless if they’re on the field the majority of the game.
Beck’s injury has decreased his arm strength. As far as Payton goes, he’s been described as “sloppy” by scouts in a mechanical sense. And not the greatest arm strength.
In the end, they’re gonna count on Rodgers returning here while developing Howard. At this point, I’d rather they go with Howard and bring in another young QB via the draft on day 2 or 3.
Can’t see Rodgers doing much more for their win total than he did last season
They should be looking at Allar and Klubnik wtf
I’ve seen enough of Allar to say no, they already have enough back up’s in the QB room. Klubnik’s star seems to have faded
I think Allar is a top 100 pick if he doesnt go down with the injury
And Klubnik reminds me a lot of Bo Nix, not conventional, but athletic game manager in the right system
Anyone but Rodgers
Why draft will Howard to not give him a shot? This is dumb