At first glance, it appears the Pittsburgh Steelers are in trouble at quarterback. Over the past four seasons, that has remained true, as they missed on Kenny Pickett, trotted out late-career Ben Roethlisberger, and tried to work it out with Justin Fields and Russell Wilson.

However, general manager Omar Khan and the Steelers appear to have a future plan on how to get the team out of the quarterback rut. For 2025, it is still a huge question whether Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, or someone else will be the quarterback.

But how are they doing it? By racking up a bunch of compensatory picks. With the Steelers losing so many internal free agents, such as Fields, Dan Moore Jr., Najee Harris, Donte Jackson, and others, they are now in for the maximum four compensatory picks, with two of those being a third and fourth-rounder.

The Steelers will unlikely deal off future pieces for the 2026 NFL Draft capital. With that in mind, Khan is giving himself free ammo to feel comfortable being aggressive in the 2026 NFL Draft.

As it stands now, the 2026 NFL Draft looks like one of the stronger groups the league will have seen in recent years. It might not be quite as strong as the 2024 class when all is said and done, but the Steelers expect to be players in the market.

All of the extra picks Pittsburgh is getting seem targeted at the proposition of this team simply racking up as many picks as they can to position themselves for a move up the board. It’s a shrewd strategy that shows some forward-thinking from the front office.

Signing players such as Darius Slay or Aaron Rodgers continue to point to this, too. Neither of those players will count toward the compensatory pick formula for the Steelers since their previous teams cut them.

As confusing as the 2025 offseason has been, and a lot of it can be criticized, the Steelers do seem to have a clear plan for how to attack the 2026 NFL Draft and, perhaps, finally get themselves out of the endless cycle of quarterbacks they have remained in over the last five years.