While the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t found their quarterback of the future, they have been proactive in leaving no stone unturned. Pittsburgh has used draft picks in back-to-back seasons on rookies to help fill out the room.
The hit rate for quarterbacks in general is bad. When you get outside of the first round, it gets even worse. That isn’t to say that the Steelers wasted picks on both Will Howard and Drew Allar.
Even if neither pans out as a starter, there is still value in having two young quarterbacks on the roster. Assuming Howard does enough to win the backup role this year, the Steelers will be sitting pretty with their quarterback depth.
The Pittsburgh Steelers could maintain an extremely cheap quarterback room for the foreseeable future
I’m running with the assumption that neither Howard nor Allar turns into a franchise quarterback. If they do, then there is obviously no question that picking them when they did was a fantastic move.
If Howard and Allar settle in as second and third options, though, there is still good here. Both players will remain extremely cheap for the next few years.
The quarterback market is always hot, but even the backup quarterback market can see players net over $10 million a season. Howard and Allar combined will cost a fraction of that.
This doesn’t solve the starter issue, but it allows the team to keep an extremely cheap quarterback room for the next two years at least after 2026.
It feels like a safe assumption that the Steelers will target an early quarterback in 2027 (or, perhaps, Brendan Sorsby?) if they feel like they still need a starter. The veteran route has run its course.
While first-round rookies cost more than late-round picks, it will still be an extremely affordable deal. You could have your three quarterbacks easily cost you less than $10 million a season.
This gives you an immense number of options for how you build the roster. We’ve seen the team pay players despite not being true starters (yet, in the case of Nick Herbig). It looks like a weird strategy until you remember that Pittsburgh has turned the most expensive position in football into one of the cheapest.
This will continue to manifest next year as three of the five offensive line starters become eligible for new deals next year. Pittsburgh can continue to navigate these waters with relative ease because their quarterback room will remain so cheap for so long.
The best-case scenario is that either Howard or Allar becomes a franchise quarterback and answers that question. Even if they don’t, they still give this team an immense number of options in building a competitive roster moving forward.
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