The Pittsburgh Steelers added ten rookies to their squad by way of the draft last week, and overall, it was a fun and unpredictable affair for Pittsburgh. From the first round to the seventh, this team did its best to add talent for the future of the team.
That being said, this draft certainly wasn’t the prettiest.
We had grown accustomed to Omar Khan drafts being a combination of great value while filling a position of need. The first-round board would break perfectly, while days two and three would allow this team to address major holes while not sacrificing talent.
The board didn’t break that well this year, leading to a widely different draft result. With ample time to digest the picks, here are the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Steelers 2026 draft class.
The good, the bad, and the ugly from a wild 2026 Pittsburgh Steelers draft haul
The Good – The Steelers continued to address the trenches
While the board didn’t break as well as it has in the past, the Steelers didn’t allow it to derail their top pick. While they had their sights set on Makai Lemon, once he was taken, the team didn’t panic.
In the past, we have seen the team pivot to the next player at that position on their board (see Burns, Artie as a reference). This year, the team went to their next top player on the board and selected Max Iheanachor.
You throw in Gennings Dunker and Gabriel Rubio, and you see this team continue to fill out their trenches through the draft. The Steelers are continuing to build a solid base from the ground up.
The Good – Solid contributors in the middle portion of the draft
While you can argue for or against the value of these three picks, the Steelers should see a lot of fruit from their three middle picks in this draft class. Riley Nowakowski, Kaden Wetjen, and Dunker all project as instant impact players for this team early in their careers.
Dunker has the toughest path to playing time given the depth in the guard room right now, but given his draft status, you have to figure he is going to get on the field sooner than later. Wetjen should instantly be the kick and punt returner for this team, and the team has lacked a capable starter there for years.
Nowakowski can slot in as a fullback and reserve tight end from the shoot. It isn’t unthinkable that he plays a healthy amount of offensive snaps as a rookie.
The Good – Germie Bernard’s fit
It felt like Germie Bernard was the last best fit for the Steelers after they traded up for him in the second round. His style of play is exactly what this room needs. While there were plenty of options on day two at receiver, no one matches Bernard’s route running.
He knows how to get open and makes catches constantly. Pair him with the bigger bodies in the room, and you have a good third option with the potential to develop into a core piece of your offense.
The Bad – The lack of aggression in a poor draft class
It was no secret that the 2026 draft class was considered weak. From lacking top-end players to late round picks few fans have heard of, on paper, this group was pretty weak.
The Steelers had 12 picks in this draft. While adding a lot of rookies to an older roster wasn’t a bad move, it feels like this team should have been more aggressive in adding players that they truly wanted.
Their first-round pick feels like a player they took because everyone else they wanted was off the board. Despite ample picks to move around, this team remained mostly in their original picks with little movement.
Going up to draft a big name would have made sense. Trading away 2026 picks for 2027 picks would have also made sense. Instead, the Steelers mostly stood pat and watched as other teams grabbed some of their top players.
The Bad – The Steelers third round
While the Dunker pick was a highlight of the whole draft, I’m not sure it makes up for the other picks in the third round.
Drew Allar kicked things off at pick 76, which felt about a round too early. Add in the general lack of success of mid-round quarterbacks, and it is hard to love the pick. I get that he has potential, and we have a staff in place to try and develop quarterbacks, but it felt like too rich a spot for the Penn State product.
Worse yet was Daylen Everette. The Georgia cornerback looks good getting off the bus, but he failed to be consistent with the Bulldogs. He will have time to sit and develop, which is good, but I’m not sure he gets over the hump in the pros.
With two out of your three third-round picks being massive question marks, it feels like a wasted opportunity. The third round is a time to get players who can contribute sooner rather than later and develop into franchise pieces. Allar and Everette don’t feel like great pieces in that regard.
The Ugly – Day 3 value
Outside of Allar, the first two days of the Steelers draft felt mostly on point in terms of value. Day 3 was an entirely different story.
Wetjen in the fourth was at least a round too early. He doesn’t offer much of anything on offense right now, and while I am excited to see him return kicks and punts, you would have liked more out of your fourth-round pick.
Nowakowski was pushed up slightly by the run on tight ends. A fullback in the fifth round still doesn’t feel like great value. It felt like he could have also gone a round later.
Finally, there is Rubio. While I get the appeal on paper, almost no one had him ranked as a draftable prospect. Taking him even in the sixth was bad value, a common trend for this draft class as a whole.
The Ugly – Playing to the drafts strengths
The Steelers had previously been one of the better teams at mirroring their needs for the year with the strengths of a draft class. Last year, the defensive line was the obvious need, and the team benefited from one of the deepest defensive line classes in recent years. The same occurred with the previous two drafts under Khan.
Even if the need wasn’t clear, the Steelers would still take advantage of the strength of a draft class. This year was a massive exception.
While I’ve highlighted that this was a weaker class overall, both the secondary and linebacker talent were abundant this year. If the Steelers wanted to benefit from this class as they had before, taking players from these groups would have been logical.
No linebacker was taken, and the only notable defensive back was Everette in the third round. For a draft class this shallow, you needed every bit of help that you could get. The Steelers failed to maximize the strengths of this draft, though.
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