The Steelers are a team that builds through the draft, but would it be wise to look at options that have already played in the league?
The 2020 draft is being heralded by many as one of the best QB classes in a long time, possibly ever. The NFL is a quarterback league and signal-callers are scattered throughout this class – headlined by Trevor Lawrence. In addition, three others are considered high-quality options in Trey Lance, Zach Wilson, and Justin Fields.
After that, the NFL Draft will contain National Championship winner Mac Jones, College passing leader Kyle Trask, and a developmental prospect in Jamie Newman. Newman was coming into this season as a top 3 quarterback prospect after transferring to Georgia from Wake Forrest but has seemingly been forgotten due to his COVID-19 opt-out.
With what seems like a load of talent (all of these prospects could be successful if they land in the right schemes) teams are going to be snagging up quarterbacks in the first 2 rounds. At the 24th pick, players like Jones, Trask, and Newman would be well within reach, but there are higher needs on the team. If they can’t restructure both Nelson and Haden, then a replacement will be needed for one of them due to the cap situation. If they don’t take a center with their first pick they run the risk of losing the chance at a starter due to such a shallow center class. The Tackle class is too deep to not take a swing on one with the potential departure of Alejandro Villanueva.
Yet the Steelers have an opportunity to take advantage of this insane class by not drafting a quarterback altogether. First, there won’t be a ‘real’ combine. None of these teams are getting a great look at the prospects. They can’t have the kind of in-person, ‘draw plays on a whiteboard’ interviews that they normally do when scouting a quarterback on top of not getting to see the top prospects make all the throws and run all the drills they’d like to see when scouting at the NFL Combine. For a lot of franchises, that won’t matter. They will let their current quarterback go to make something happen. There will be trade options and free-agent opportunities for some legitimately talented quarterbacks in the NFL. Most importantly, Art Rooney said the Steelers were going to bring in another quarterback this year. Here are a few they could get outside of the draft: