If the NFL Combine taught us one thing, it's that the Pittsburgh Steelers are planning on targeting a wide receiver early in the 2026 NFL Draft. Omar Khan and the team's brass met with all of the top receiver prospects this year... and their primary objective feels painfully obvious.
The Steelers used over one-fourth of their allotted formal Combine visits on the wide receiver position. This included meetings with top prospects like Ohio State's Carnell Tate and USC's Makai Lemon, who are expected to be outside of their reach, barring a trade-up in Round 1.
Pittsburgh also met with every possible wideout who could be in play as a potential first-round pick, including Washington's Denzel Boston, Texas A&M's KC Concepcion, Indiana's Omar Cooper Jr, and Georgia's Zachariah Branch.
Meanwhile, the team even loaded up on WR visits for players who are expected to go on Day 2 of the draft, like Alabama's Germie Bernard, Indiana's Elijah Sarratt, Notre Dame's Malachi Fields, Oklahoma's Deion Burks, and Clemson's Antonio Williams.
Khan left no stone unturned when it came to scouting receivers at the Combine. The problem is that the Steelers are putting all of their eggs into one basket... and they may pigeonhole themselves into one position early in the NFL Draft.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are hyper-focused on taking a WR early in the NFL Draft
There's nothing wrong with addressing positional needs—most fans would be upset if their team didn't try to fill their biggest roster gaps during the offseason. But sometimes getting laser-focused on one positional group means missing out on more talented players.
While the 2026 draft class includes a respectable crop of talent at wide receiver, the Steelers' focus at the NFL Combine made it clear that they aren't interested in taking a 'best player available' (BPA) approach. They want to fix the wide receiver position with whatever option falls to them in the draft.
This is a dangerous game, and one that has produced questionable—even downright awful—results in the past for Pittsburgh.
In Kevin Colbert's final five drafts as general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2018 to 2022, his focus was on filling the team's biggest positional needs in April, not taking the best players at the most important positions.
And the Steelers paid the price for this questionable draft philosophy.
In 2018, the Steelers had a need at safety, and Colbert reached on Virginia Tech's Terrell Edmunds. In 2019, Pittsburgh needed a linebacker, and they traded a first-, second-, and future third-round pick to move up for Devin Bush. In 2021, Art Rooney II wanted to fix the running game, so Colbert dialed into Najee Harris in Round 1. And in 2022, the Steelers wanted to find Ben Roethlisberger's replacement, so they narrowed their search to Kenny Pickett in an awful quarterback class.
These all proved to be disastrous decisions for an organization that was too focused on trying to fill holes rather than build a Super Bowl-winning roster the right way—by taking the best players on the board when they were on the clock.
This year, there's a chance the need-first philosophy pans out. Receiver prospects like Boston, Concepcion, and Cooper could be viewed as 'on value' picks for Pittsburgh, while talented Arizona State WR Jordyn Tyson could fall due to medical concerns.
But nabbing a quality receiver with the 21st overall selection would simply make the Steelers right for all the wrong reasons.
A good front office would do its homework on all of the best possible prospects who could be available to them at pick No. 21, not just the wide receivers and cornerbacks.
The Steelers might still be a few years away from being legitimate playoff contenders, so the last thing Khan should do is narrow his search to one positional group early in the 2026 NFL Draft. However, coming out of the NFL Combine, it would almost be shocking if Pittsburgh selected anything other than a wide receiver in Round 1 this year.