While the quality is questionable, the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t exactly have an empty quarterback room. Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph give them veteran options. Will Howard and rookie Drew Allar give them two developmental arms with no NFL resumes.
So, on paper, the Steelers don’t need another quarterback.
But that’s the problem with Pittsburgh’s quarterback situation. On paper, it always looks a little more settled than it feels.
Five years after Ben Roethlisberger retired, the Steelers are still searching for a real long-term answer. They’ve cycled through Band-Aid quarterbacks ... and Kenny Pickett. Now Brendan Sorsby is about to hit the Supplemental Draft, and Pittsburgh at least appears curious enough to keep digging.
Mike DeFabo, Steelers insider for The Athletic, said Pittsburgh isn’t brushing off Sorsby’s situation just because of the gambling issue that surrounded his exit from college football.
“It sounds like right now, the Steelers are currently doing their homework,” Mike DeFabo said on "Yinziders".
“It sounds like [the gambling issue] at this point would not be a disqualifier for the Steelers.”
Brendan Sorsby forces Pittsburgh Steelers to ask uncomfortable questions
That doesn’t mean that the Steelers are ready to throw themselves into the middle of the Brendan Sorsby sweepstakes. It means they haven’t crossed him off the board, but just how far are they willing to go?
Sorsby isn’t some anonymous flyer. He’s the most high-profile player to enter the Supplemental Draft since Terrelle Pryor in 2011, and there’s a reason teams will be interested. In 2025 at Cincinnati, Sorsby threw 45 touchdowns to just 11 picks.
That kind of production won't solve every concern, but it forces the Steelers to ask uncomfortable questions in the discovery process. How serious was the gambling infraction? How much does it affect their trust in him? What's Sorsby's propensity to repeat? How good of a player is he actually? And if they like the talent enough, how aggressive are they willing to be?
DeFabo described Pittsburgh as still sorting through exactly that.
“They would at least be interested to learn more and do their homework to figure out how bad was this infraction and then figure out how good is Sorsby and are they willing to take that risk,” DeFabo said.
The Steelers already have volume at quarterback, but they don’t have certainty beyond 2026. Rodgers is a short-term answer. Rudolph is nothing more than a backup. Howard and Allar are developmental pieces, far from guarantees.
Sorsby would add another layer to that picture, but also add complications.
Pittsburgh doesn’t have to act desperate to be interested. It just has to acknowledge what the past five years have shown. Until the Steelers find a real quarterback answer, every intriguing option deserves a closer look. Speculation and rumors are already running rampant, and there are potentially four more months until we know where Sorsby will land.
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