There is a very unique opportunity to acquire a top tier talent at quarterback about to happen in just a few weeks. Former Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby is going to be in the NFL’s supplemental draft in early July. Sorsby is a talented quarterback prospect who most teams considered a first round caliber player. His well documented gambling issues have forced him out of Texas Tech, and into the supplemental draft. Clearly there are serious risks, but also immense rewards if he can get past his issues. The Steelers are among a majority of teams that will have at least some interest in this player.
The Rules:
Let’s start out with explaining how the supplemental draft works. Teams are allowed to place a blind bid on the player in rounds one through seven. The winner is the team with the earliest round bid. That franchise would lose that pick in the 2027 draft however. So if a team used a second round bid and won the player, they would lose that pick in the 2027 draft. NFL teams are put into 3 tiers for the draft. Tier one is teams with 6 or fewer wins, tier 2 is non-playoff teams, and tier 3 is the remaining teams. A weighted lottery is used to determine the draft order from there.
The Risk/Reward:
Now let’s deal with the player. Brendan Sorsby is a dual threat quarterback immense potential. Sorsby threw for 2800 yards in his final season at Cincinnati, with 27 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions. He also ran for another 580 yards and an additional 9 touchdowns. His move to a more talented program like Texas Tech could have catapulted him into a top 10 pick. That’s the good. The bad is of course all the baggage that comes with the gambling issues.
Sorsby bet a significant amount of money on college football, and more importantly on the Indiana team that he played on. This of course raises all kinds of questions about his character. There is also a good possibility that Sorsby is suspended by the NFL in 2026. There is precedence for the NFL to uphold suspensions for college players who leave college for the pros. Terrell Pryor was suspended for 5 games by the league after being selected in the supplemental draft in 2011.
The Steelers dilemma:
It gets even more complicated when the Pittsburgh Steelers potentially get involved. They already have two young quarterbacks who have not taken an NFL snap in Drew Allar, and Will Howard. Fitting a third on to the team would be next to impossible. Not to mention they still have a fourth quarterback in Mason Rudolph on the roster. The question now becomes is Brendan Sorsby a better prospect than either of those, and by how much? The answer is Sorsby is significantly better, and it is not close. Neither Howard or Allar were anywhere near a first round prospect coming out of college.
Then there’s the high probability that the Steelers probably don’t want to go into the season with a rookie as the primary backup to Aaron Rodgers. Drafting Sorsby would probably mean the team would be inclined to keep four quarterbacks on the roster. Something that is possible, but not common.
Aside from the number of quarterbacks on the roster, there is another issue with the Steelers acquiring Brendan Sorsby. Given the fact they made the playoffs in 2025, they would be picking later in the rounds of the supplemental draft. By the time their turn came around in the second round, Sorsby is almost certain to be gone. That means the Steelers would have to risk their first round pick in 2027 to have any chance to get the player. Adding another level of risk in this situation is not a good sign for a risk averse team like the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The inevitable:
At the end of the day, the Steelers will have to take a hard look at where they will be heading into the 2027 draft. They have built the team to win now, and that will land them in a very familiar place in the draft. Somewhere from the late teens to mid twenties, far from any chance of getting one of the top names at quarterback. Do they mortgage several future assets to move up in the draft, or roll the dice in the supplemental draft?
There is a third, and more likely option. The Steelers could go the veteran route again. Sign some washed up big name to continue the fantasy of being a competitive franchise. The name Baker Mayfield comes to mind as a prime candidate. You can bet this is the path Art Rooney would prefer. Taking Brendan Sorsby has the most upside of any of these scenarios, but we all know how this franchise operates.