After a solid start to the offseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers will head into the draft with many of their needs lessened. They added to multiple positions around the roster, and with 12 picks in their arsenal, the Steelers can be pretty flexible early in the draft.<\/p>\n
Which could make things interesting, since the quarterback spot still isn\u2019t secured. It feels likely that Aaron Rodgers will come back<\/a>, but it may still be some time before that answer comes. With five picks in the first 99, Pittsburgh will have plenty of options to select a quarterback. But Ben Roethlisberger doesn\u2019t think that should happen in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen some people say quarterback, they should get a quarterback in the second round. I think that\u2019s a huge mistake,\u201d Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his Footbahlin podcast<\/a>. \u201cSecond round, you can get so many really good players, and you don\u2019t waste it on a quarterback right now. Even if Aaron says I\u2019m not coming back, I wouldn\u2019t do it in the second round\u2026 I would not draft one in my first three picks, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n Without the position secured, many have naturally speculated that Ty Simpson may end up a Steeler. It\u2019s somewhat similar to the speculation around Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart last year, when the Steelers were also sitting at 21st overall. In both instances, they don\u2019t have a decision from Rodgers, so many pair them with a quarterback likely available<\/a> at that pick.<\/p>\n The second-best quarterback (although that narrative may be shifting as of late<\/a>) in a week class, Simpson has a lot of hype around him during this cycle. But Roethlisberger doesn\u2019t think the reaction would be pretty if the Steelers announce Simpson as their first-round pick.<\/p>\n \u201cYou better hope that first pick they announce up there, is one the fans want,\u201d Roethlisberger said. \u201cThey were talking about Ty Simpson, I\u2019m like, alright, they better not. Like that would be the craziest [thing], but if they did that, I think Pittsburgh would boo\u2026 Because of the pick, what are we doing?\u201d<\/p>\n Booing may be a bit harsh, but there will surely be some reaction from the fan base regardless of who the Steelers draft. And Steelers fans sure weren\u2019t shy about sharing their frustrations during home losses late in the 2025 season.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, some report that the Steelers aren\u2019t strongly considering<\/a> Simpson in the first round. He likely won\u2019t be available when the Steelers go on the clock in the second round either. However, with three third-round picks, a different prospect on Day 2 could be in play.<\/p>\n There are some interesting names in that range. Drew Allar and Carson Beck, two names who Ray Fittipaldo thinks are worth keeping in mind<\/a>, should be available at that point. Pittsburgh also set up a meeting with Cole Payton<\/a>, who should also be on the board.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh has five combined picks in the third and fourth rounds. The Steelers have plenty of chances to draft a QB in that range. Roethlisberger just hopes it doesn\u2019t happen too early.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a solid start to the offseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers will head into the draft with many of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4793,64719,73,75,74,56875],"class_list":["post-154206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-ben-roethlisberger","tag-footbahlin-with-ben-roethlisberger","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-ty-simpson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}