Tony Pauline: ‘Sure Bet’ Steelers Draft Quarterback in 1st Round

The Pittsburgh Steelers are a “sure bet” to draft a quarterback in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Pro Football Network insider and NFL Draft analyst Tony Pauline said this week.

The quarterback carousel of the offseason has reached the point of the NFL Draft. Now, it is uncertain how the cookie will crumble, but the first-round quarterbacks are seemingly a mystery. Thus, when it feels like there is no certain landing spot for any quarterback, the speculation runs wild.

Pauline, however, shed some light on what fans could expect on Thursday night at the NFL Draft. Most importantly, it feels as if there are two teams that really stick out as likely drafting a quarterback, and a third that has shown sneaky interest in them.

“Right now, it looks like a sure bet the New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers take a signal-caller in the first round,” Pauline wrote. “Word is there’s a very real possibility the Seattle Seahawks move into the back end of Round 1 and grab their quarterback of the future.”

That likely means that the Saints acquired the extra first-round pick to give them leverage over the Steelers to go get their guy. Even more so, the Steelers seemed to be locked in on a quarterback. Their pro-day travels and Top-30 visits seemingly line up with the idea that they will draft a quarterback. However, who could that quarterback be? Pauline threw out four names that could potentially sneak into the first round.

“The belief around the league is three quarterbacks will end up in the first round: Malik Willis, Kenny Pickett, and either Desmond Ridder or Matt Corral,” Pauline wrote. “As I mentioned previously, Ridder is getting a lot of first-round grades around the league. However, Corral is building late momentum, and more and more teams feel he could end up in the top 32.”

While it is unclear which quarterback the Steelers will target, they have shown the level of interest in all of them to where they could be comfortable making that pick if they like the guy enough. The only question is what is their hierarchy of quarterbacks, and where does the value for the quarterback position become so low that there is a need to look elsewhere.