Ben Roethlisberger's arm ligaments turned al dente sometime around 2019. The Pittsburgh Steelers' defense behind him remained strong. That juxtaposition created the broken path that leads us to 2026. That's the year where the Steelers, in a league where most teams will have only two quarterbacks on their active roster, plan to keep four passers at the 53-man cutdown day.
That's what first-year head coach Mike McCarthy told ESPN's Brooke Pryorto expect when rosters as finalized August 30 at 6 p.m. ET. His QB1 will be a soon-to-be 43-year-old Aaron Rodgers, heavily diminished from his MVP peak. His veteran backup will be Mason Rudolph, exiled to Nashville in 2024 to bring his special brand of underwhelming football to the Tennessee Titans before
reuniting with the team last year. Behind them, for now, is the duo of mid-round draft picks Pittsburgh picked up as lottery tickets in hopes they may have dug a diamond from a coal mine: Will Howard (sixth round, 2026) and Drew Allar (third round, 2026).
The need for four quarterbacks can be traced back to the end of the Roethlisberger era. This team was too competent to fall to a top 10 draft pick as the two-time Super Bowl champion's arm weakened and his average target distance dropped to league lows. Stopgap solutions followed; Mitchell Trubisky. Kenny Pickett. Rudolph. Russell Wilson. Justin Fields. Now, it's Rodgers.
When Pickett, the first quarterback selected in one of the worst quarterback drafts of all time, failed, the Steelers bought in to retread passers just good enough to keep the team at slightly above average. Playoff appearances followed. Playoff wins did not. Between weak draft position and the franchise's general distaste for big free agent splashes -- missing out on Kirk Cousins (good!) and Sam Darnold (not as good!) -- Pittsburgh went from renting to owning its place in contender's limbo.
2026 has marked the franchise's desire to stay there. Mike Tomlin, architect of zero losing seasons in 19 years at the helm, parted ways with the team. Rather than start fresh with a rising young head coach, the team hired Mike McCarthy, a man with a 126-80-2 record in the regular season since 2011 and a 6-9 playoff record. It brought back Rodgers, who can no longer use his legs to extend plays and has been forced into a diet of short, quick passes to avoid pressure even as his otherworldly arm talent remains in flashes of "remember when?" And, importantly, rather than casting his lot with Howard and Allar in case of injury and letting the chips fall where they may, McCarthy is keeping Rudolph as QB2.
This is a formula to create more of the same. Rather than see if his young quarterbacks can sink or swim, McCarthy has sent the signal he'll tread water with a veteran backup whose ceiling and floor are already well defined. Instead of Rodgers giving way to a prospect who could rise up and prove himself as the team's future or sink the team to the top of a passer-rich 2027 NFL Draft, he's going to roll with the veteran who, in case of injury, can top this franchise out at nine wins and a Wild Card loss.
The coach is different. The story is the same. The Steelers will be a good team again. They will almost certainly not be a great one. Keeping four quarterbacks on the active roster on cutdown day is merely a symptom of the disease that keeps the franchise mired in a realm of competent mediocrity.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Steelers plan to keep 4 QBs, because this is what they signed up for
