The Pittsburgh Steelers are giving Aaron Rodgers one more shot to right the ship in 2026, but the team's 2027 quarterback outlook is shaky at best. The Steelers selected Penn State's Drew Allar with the No. 76 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and some believe Allar and possibly Will Howard could duke it out for the right to be the starting QB next year.
But the latest NFL Draft expert rankings reveal that there could be a better option on the table for Pittsburgh next year.
On Wednesday, draft expert Nate Tice of Yahoo! Sports dropped his top-25 rankings for his early 2027 big board. Surprisingly, Tice had Oregon's Dante Moore No. 10 overall. This is significant, as other experts believe Moore is one of the top prospects in the class and that he could go as high as the No. 2 overall pick.
A quarterback who once seemed out of reach could be in play after all for the Steelers next April, but this will still require general manager Omar Khan to get aggressive.
The Pittsburgh Steelers still stand a shot at Oregon QB Dante Moore after latest NFL Draft rankings
Interestingly, Tice had South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers over Moore on his updated big board. If Moore starts to slip in the eyes of the media, it's possible he could do the same for NFL front offices.
That's where the Steelers come in.
It's easy to project that Pittsburgh will earn a 9-8 or 10-7 record for the 2026 season—it's what they almost always do. If this proves to be the case—and assuming the Steelers don't make it far into the playoffs—we're looking at a team that will likely be picking in the 18-24 range in the first round next year.
This is too far out of range to jump all the way up to the No. 2 pick in the draft (where many have predicted Moore will land). The cost to do so would be as high as three first-round picks and potentially future Day 2 or Day 3 draft capital.
But to jump from 18-24 into the top 10 is another matter entirely.
History gives us an idea of what trades like this might cost. In the 2019 NFL Draft, former general manager Kevin Colbert jumped from pick No. 20 to pick No. 10 to move up for Michigan linebacker Devin Bush. It cost the Steelers their original first-round pick, a second-round pick, and a future third-round pick.
While this trade was obviously a terrible decision in hindsight (and teams should never do this for an off-the-ball linebacker), this amount of capital is more than reasonable to move up for a potential franchise quarterback.
Dante Moore has quality size and NFL-starter arm talent, along with poise, anticipation, and accuracy. With a spectacular senior season in 2026, he could catapult himself to the top of the draft—well beyond the reach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
However, Tice's latest top-25 big board rankings suggest there could be at least two other quarterbacks taken ahead of the young Oregon product. If things unfold like this, the Steelers will have a shot to trade up for a franchise quarterback without selling the farm.
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