The Pittsburgh Steelers' 2026 NFL Draft has sparked significant debate, with many questioning the choices made. Key overreactions include comparisons of Max Iheanachor to Broderick Jones and concerns about the team's direction without Mike Tomlin.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers had a 2026 NFL Draft that was, well, perplexing to put it nicely. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat when it comes to the draft process, and in three to four years, there's a chance we look back on the class and the prevailing notion was dead wrong.
So today, we are going to name the three biggest overreactions to what the Steelers just did over the course of the weekend. Let's jump in.
Look, if we want to reprimand what happened in the first round and the phone-gate debacle, that's fine. But as Omar Khan said after the draft, the Steelers stuck true to their board and went with their highest rated player once Makai Lemon was poached by the Eagles.
And yes, Iheanachor is raw. Yes, he didn't start playing football until very recently and was mostly a soccer player. But the truth is, there might not be a tackle with higher potential and a greater ceiling than Iheanachor.
The feet, the length, the traits, it's all there. Sure, the Steelers will need to be patient, but this isn't a player who is fundamentally flawed the way that Jones was. This is a player who you don't have to fix; you have to build up. So it's far too soon to write off Iheanachor.
When the rhetoric coming out of Pittsburgh is always about how much the Steelers love Will Howard, and on day two, with their third pick in the draft, the Steelers take another quarterback that many view as a reach, it's easy to see why some may believe that McCarthy doesn't like Howard.
The truth is, McCarthy doesn't know what he likes. He needs to see both Allar and Howard competing in a live environment before making any rash decisions. And when you don't have an obvious quarterback of the future, taking as many shots as possible makes a lot of sense.
The three biggest overreactions include the comparison of Max Iheanachor to Broderick Jones, concerns about Omar Khan's leadership without Mike Tomlin, and doubts about the overall draft strategy.
Max Iheanachor is a highly rated tackle selected by the Steelers, noted for his raw potential and unique background as a former soccer player.
The impact of the 2026 draft choices will become clearer in three to four years, as the team's decisions could either prove to be strategic or misguided.
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If you look at Omar Khan's draft history since he took over for Kevin Colbert in 2023, you see draft classes littered with talent and starters. And honestly, just about every time it reached Sunday of draft weekend, the consensus view was that Khan and the Steelers nailed the draft.
Well, the only obvious difference in the decision-making process this year was no Mike Tomlin. And under Mike Tomlin, the Steelers were at every big-time Pro Day, the Senior Bowl, and well represented at the NFL Combine. A lot of that changed this year, but it doesn't mean that Omar Khan wasn’t heavily involved, if not making picks, before.
We’ll see if the media and fans, or Khan and co., are right in 3-4 years.