Best QB Options for the Pittsburgh Steelers Not Named Aaron Rodgers

For the third consecutive year and the fifth time in the last six years, a Pittsburgh Steelers' season reached an unceremonious end during the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs.

While Pittsburgh has remained competitive enough to reach the postseason with regularity—a truly impressive feat given the toughness of the AFC North and the parity-driven modern NFL as a whole—the team hasn't looked like a realistic Super Bowl contender in a long time.

With the Steelers mired in the NFL's version of purgatory—too good to bottom out and land the type of franchise-altering prospects found at the top of drafts but not good enough to make a Lombardi Trophy run with what they have—it's clear that something needs to give.

There are strong arguments for a variety of drastic changes across the organization, most notably at the head-coaching spot. Mike Tomlin has been at the reins for nearly two decades but hasn't won a Super Bowl since 2008—his second year on the job—nor reached the big game since the 2010 season. With the Steelers coming off a decade without a postseason win, calls for the organization to part ways with Tomlin, just the third person to coach the Steelers since the start of the 1969 campaign, are growing louder.

Regardless of which direction Pittsburgh's brass ultimately takes with Tomlin, the club must also address its dire quarterback situation during the offseason.

For the past few years, the Steelers have effectively been slapping band-aids over their roster's most glaring problem. The team has lacked a consistent starter since Ben Roethlisberger retired four years ago and can't expect to find real success while the quarterback position remains a revolving door.

Since giving up on 2022 first-rounder Kenny Pickett after a mere two seasons, Pittsburgh has deployed a trio of veteran starters sourced from the free-agent market. While the combination of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in 2024 and Aaron Rodgers in 2025 worked well enough to narrowly get the Steelers into the playoffs, it wasn't good enough to move the needle during that stretch.

The Steelers must make some tough and drastic decisions regarding the long-term future of the QB position. They'll have several options at their disposal this offseason, ranging from pitching Rodgers on returning for another go, to signing his replacement off the open market, to utilizing draft capital in hopes of finding an impact rookie who can start for the club in Year 1.

Rather than hoping Rodgers elects to return for a 22nd season in 2026 and running it back just to find similar results—or bringing in one of the flawed free-agent veterans like Malik Willis or Daniel Jones—it's time to tear things down and build from the ground up.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, they aren't occupying the type of draft slot needed to land a blue-chip quarterback prospect. The team won't be on the clock on Day 1 until No. 21 overall, placing them well outside the range where elite collegiate signal-callers such as Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore—the consensus top two picks on the Bleacher Report Scouting Department's latest mock draft—are expected to go.

A trade-up is effectively off the table. Not only would it be exorbitantly costly, but both the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Jets—the organizations picking at Nos. 1 and 2 respectively—are in dire need of quarterback help themselves and are near-locks to draft the two consensus best prospects in the class. While the Steelers do hold 12 total selections in the 2026 draft, including five in the top-100, it would take a franchise-crippling amount of present and future capital to convince either of those clubs to move off a coveted draft slot.

With Mendoza and Moore nothing more than pipe dreams for the Steelers, the club must set its sights on one of the less-heralded QB prospects in the class – Ty Simpson. Let's take a closer look at why Pittsburgh should target him when on the clock either at No. 21 overall or via a more reasonable trade-up of 10 or fewer draft slots.

Simpson is the No. 3 quarterback and No. 30 overall prospect on the B/R Scouting Department's big board. His 7.9 grade—indicating a "potential impact player" on B/R's scale—is a good bit behind Mendoza (8.5) and Moore (8.3), but noticeably ahead of other eligible draftees at the position, such as Carson Beck (7.5), Cade Klubnik (7.4), and Garrett Nussmeier (7.3).

Although Simpson hasn't amassed the accolades or drawn the same amount of hype as the two passers projected to be selected ahead of him on draft day, he still has a real chance to become an upper-echelon NFL quarterback.

Even though his tenure at Alabama didn't result in the hardware that some other Crimson Tide quarterbacks have collected in recent years, he still posted an 11-4 record while throwing for 3,567 yards and 28 touchdowns during his lone year as a starter. His 64.5 percent completion rate doesn't jump off the page, but he only accounted for five interceptions during his redshirt junior season.

As B/R scout Dame Parson pointed out, the former five-star recruit patiently waited for his turn and capitalized on the opportunity, showing the maturity and poise of a seasoned veteran despite limited live reps.

Simpson already displays many of the traits that he'll need to succeed at the NFL level. He possesses top-notch pocket awareness, rapid processing abilities, and places his throws with extreme accuracy. While he's not a great athlete and has to improve his ability to handle pressure, there's plenty of reason to believe that Simpson will develop into a good pro quarterback.

If the Steelers do manage to land Simpson, they'll also want to bring on board a proven veteran who can both push the rookie and mentor him during those pivotal early years in the league. Someone like Joe Flacco makes perfect sense as a bridge between Rodgers and Simpson.

Flacco surprisingly remained a serviceable starter during an age 40 campaign in 2025. Although things started off a bit rocky with the Cleveland Browns, Flacco found his stride after an early-season move to the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincy may have only won one of his six starts, but the longtime veteran still racked up a respectable 1,664 yards and 13 touchdowns against four interceptions despite being thrust directly under center following the trade.

Regardless of whether he opens the year as the QB1 or slots in behind Simpson as the backup after a training camp battle, Flacco's presence and leadership would be a boon for the Steelers. He'll also come cheap, with Spotrac projecting a market value of just $5.6 million—a cost-effective deal that will allow Pittsburgh to use the remainder of its projected $65 million in cap space to upgrade other areas of need.

With Simpson locked in as the future and Flacco there to help make sure the transition is smooth, Pittsburgh would finally have a quarterback worth building around. The Steelers may not be a contender in 2026, but for the first time in a long time, they would have a bright outlook with real hope of winning the franchise's record-setting seventh Super Bowl within the next few years.