Steelers' Kendall Simmons Gives Valuable Insight On Future Quarterback Hunt

The Pittsburgh Steelers are going through a period where they are cycling veteran quarterbacks until they find a long-term answer at the position. While Aaron Rodgers is a future Hall of Famer, he's serving as a bridge for the organization as they attempt to develop a franchise signal-caller. The players they are trying to develop right now are Drew Allar and Will Howard, but the future between them is still looking a little dim.

Some reporters are speculating that the Steelers may cut Howard and retain Mason Rudolph for the year. Doing so limits the reps for Allar and Howard to get acclimated to the NFL, but it seems like Pittsburgh wants the more experienced option behind Rodgers. 

While that does give Allar his first year to develop, the Steelers won't be able to get many looks at one of their young players to take over behind center. In fact, if he needs more time to develop, Pittsburgh may either need to go all-in on a franchise quarterback, or go with another bridge quarterback during the 2027 offseason. There aren't many options out there and if they want to have success for more than just a year, they need to figure out their answer very soon.

There's some key qualities that the Steelers need to find when deciding who is going to take over at quarterback. One of Pittsburgh's former offensive linemen in Kendall Simmons recently spoke on the Red Zone Blitz podcast discussing what the organization needs to look for when choosing their franchise quarterback. Simmons provided some extremely valuable insight.

"I would say, is going to fight, scratch, and claw for everybody on both sides of the ball," Simmons stated. "They've got to have a mentality to where he is going to talk s**t to the other side and don't care because he knows where his loyalty is. He's going to stand up for his team. You might have to grab him and tell him, man get in the huddle. That's the type of guy I love playing for."

That fight from a quarterback is exactly what players love playing for as Simmons mentioned.

Simmons framed it perfectly and there was something different with Ben Roethlisberger in terms of that trait from a quarterback. 

"Ben had a little bit of that in him," Simmons added. "What made Ben, he didn't have to talk so much smack. It was the way he played. He played like a defensive end with the football. You knew that he didn't mind sacrificing his body. So you would block until you couldn't and didn't have a breath left."

That qualities that this type of mentality represents is selflessness and grit. That is exactly why Roethlisberger was so successful as a quarterback, getting trust from other players through the key qualities that made him who he is. That type of mindset is something the Steelers should target when choosing their next franchise quarterback and targeting someone like Roethlisberger is something any fan would sign up for.  

Simmons' analysis on this is very valuable too as stated. If the quarterback isn't a great guy, nor shows that he cares about his teammates, then it reflects on the field with negative results. Team chemistry goes a long way, so Pittsburgh needs to be very picky when it comes to this franchise quarterback.

Steelers Should Seek This Quality In Future Quarterback

Pittsburgh needs to figure something out down the road for their long-term quarterback issue. There's a lot of trust in Mike McCarthy to develop Allar into a potential starter, but if that doesn't workout, the Steelers are in trouble. Targeting a guy that with traits that Simmons described would do wonders for this problem. 

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