Could Steelers Have Found a Sleeper In Mike Reilly?

At first glance, quarterback Mike Reilly looks like just the usual camp arm. As an undrafted free agent signee for the Steelers, he joins a team that already has three established QBs with Ben Roethlisberger, Charlie Batch and Dennis Dixon.

An undrafted quarterback out of Division II Central Washington? Add it up and he seems to be just the guy to keep Roethlisberger, Batch and Dixon from wearing out their arms in training camp.

But if you listen to some experts around the game, there is some feeling that Reilly could end up being a lot more than that. NFL Matchup's Greg Cosell, a film rat who watches as much game tape as nearly anyone, sure thinks so:

"I think that as a pro prospect, he's the fourth-best quarterback in this draft, after Freeman, who has a ton of skills but is very raw and unrefined. But after that, Mike Reilly -- and I've watched him on film, and I've seen his only game against a Division I opponent in Montana, in addition to some other games -- I think he shows NFL attributes. I love when I read stuff that says, 'Well, the guy has an average arm.' When you watch him on film, he doesn't have an average arm. He actually has a pretty good arm. And he does the things ... I understand that it's not against top competition, but that's not the point, He's also not playing with great competition. He's playing with the same (level of) guys he's playing against. So, you look for NFL attributes, and he's got them.

"We all know he's not going to be drafted in the first two rounds, but there's a quarterback from two years ago that I really liked, named Matt Moore, who came out of Oregon State, who's now with Carolina, and I can tell you that (Panthers head coach) John Fox thinks he's going to be a starting quarterback in this league."

Maybe Cosell's wrong. If so, the Steelers only spent a couple of thousand dollars for a camp arm who will be cut before September arrives. But if he's right, Pittsburgh may have just added their No. 3 quarterback for 2010, when Batch will be a free agent and Dixon may be ready to step in as the primary backup.