Steelers can wait to draft a QB

A surprising number of starters get picked after No. 20

It’s commonly accepted that there are three QBs with star potential available in April’s draft— Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels. With the Steelers sitting at the No. 20 pick, they are not in a good position to move up to the top three and snag one of these prospects to be their next franchise QB presumably. It’s been suggested (demanded?) by many that a bold move needs to be made either in free agency or via a trade-up in the draft for the Steelers to get a QB that can pull them out of this “mediocre” level of football that hasn’t been able to win a playoff game in seven years.

Assuming they aren’t completely sold on Kenny Pickett being the answer, and they certainly shouldn’t be based on what they have seen so far, how can the Steelers get that next QB? The next group in the draft is considered by the so-called draft experts to be JJ McCarthy, Bo Nix, and Michael Penix. If available when the Steelers pick, settling for one of these “leftovers” is just a waste of a good draft pick. Or is it?

Starting quarterbacks are found later in the draft

Including Pickett, 13 of this year’s 32 starting QBs were drafted at pick No. 20 or later.

• Kirk Cousins
• Russell Wilson
• Geno Smith
• Jimmy Garappolo
• Derek Carr
• Dak Prescott
• Lamar Jackson
• Jordan Love
• Jalen Hurts
• Brock Purdy
• Sam Howell
• Desmond Ridder
• Kenny Pickett

Pickett, Ridder, and Howell haven’t yet shown that they should’ve been drafted any higher than they were and may be on their way off the list while Will Levis is ready to join it, but the rest of that group includes one Super Bowl champion, five Super Bowl appearances, and a two-time MVP. Also on that list is Kirk Cousins, a QB who several voices are saying the Steelers should sign in free agency. All of these guys were available after pick No. 20.

If Pickett were drafted No.1 overall it wouldn’t change his potential one bit and the same statement applies to each of those 13 NFL starting QBs on that list. Aside from contract and franchise loyalty to give the high draft pick a longer leash, draft pedigree means very little when it comes to career performance. There are seemingly endless lists of top ten QB busts, and here we see a third of the starters in the league came much later in the draft. So if you’re watching the draft when April rolls around, resist the knee-jerk reaction when you hear that the Steelers sat still in the first round and picked JJ McCarthy, or they selected Michael Penix in the second round, or day three of the draft began with the Steelers trading up to take Spencer Rattler with the first pick of the fourth round. There is a decent and recent history of future starting QBs found after the Steelers’ first scheduled pick.