With the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine in the rear view mirror, the Pittsburgh Steelers front office and coaching staff will undoubtedly have decisions to make. Those decisions will fall to Mike McCarthy, our newly minted head coach, and Omar Khan, who will oversee a draft for the first time without Mike Tomlin.
Change is never a bad thing; it's inevitable—particularly in professional sports—but some change can be catastrophic. What the Steelers absolutely cannot do is fall in love with a prospect based solely on Combine results.
I am not suggesting that will happen, but I could see a scenario where it does happen simply because Pittsburgh has a new head coach and essentially a new coaching staff who all have their own opinions. Some opinions are more prominent than others, but I hope that we will view the NFL Combine for what it is.
The Pittsburgh Steelers should not make draft decisions based on NFL Combine results
Years ago, I wrote an article about how the NFL Scouting Combine cannot be the 'be all and end all' in terms of making draft-day decisions. I still believe that is true. Now more than ever, the Steelers need to trust the tape, so to speak, and not get enamored with a prospect based solely on combine performance.
While there is merit in Combine performance, it pales in comparison to in-game performance. All prospects look good in shorts and tee-shirts, but how they perform in a helmet and shoulder pads is vastly more important. In other words, a player's NFL Combine performance is one piece of the puzzle, but I would argue it is one piece to a one-thousand-piece puzzle.
For example, the 40-yard dash is arguably the preeminent drill performed at the Combine. While it is important for a prospect to turn in a quality time, the 40-yard dash is not run in full gear. It isn't even run in shells, meaning a helmet, shoulder pads, and shorts.
That said, can prospective players improve their draft stock with stellar combine performances? Of course.
Conversely, can prospective players degrade their draft stock with poor combine performances? Of course. I would argue that a good or bad Combine performance should hold little sway over a team's draft decision.
My concern with the Steelers' draft process this year, in particular, is that we will become fixated on one prospect or a few prospects based on Combine performance or individual interviews while ignoring the true measure of potential, which is what that player accomplished on the football field.
Again, I have no reason to believe we will fall into this trap, but the fact that we have a new head coach who is offensive-minded almost assuredly means we will probably draft an offensive player in the first round. I would have no issue with that, provided we draft the right player and not the player who had a great showing at the combine.
My point is not to put too much stock into NFL Combine performance. The Steelers won four Super Bowls over the span of six years during the 1970s, well before the NFL Scouting Combine came into existence.