B-
Pittsburgh Steelers
No fireworks, just a tidy B- for the Steelers.
by Steeler Born ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 6 steals
· 5 reaches
The Steelers did not so much draft Taylen Green as overpay for him, 89 picks clear of his grade. It sets an uneasy tone for the weekend.
The Hurst pick alone nudges the whole weekend up a notch. Leaving safety unaddressed is the roster risk they will have to answer for in the fall. On the needs board they went 7 of 9, with quarterback the one that mattered most.
The offense got the lion's share of the attention.
Solid rather than spectacular, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 21 they get a true top target at a price that makes it sweeter.
Value said wait; Markel Bell in the 53rd pick says they were not listening. A minor itch, scratched.
A conviction pick on Kyle Louis at pick No. 76 that the board grades a round light. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
They jumped the gun on Darrell Jackson Jr., taking him earlier than his grade liked. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Taylen Green well ahead of where he belonged. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
They robbed the room for Ted Hurst here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
A tidy bit of business in No. 135, where Will Lee III graded well above the range. It fills a real need, too.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Vincent Anthony Jr. in pick 161, miles early. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
No edge and no loss on Kaden Wetjen in pick No. 216; it is a wash and a sensible one. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They let Riley Nowakowski come to them and pounced at the 224th overall pick. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
The board had Thaddeus Dixon higher than Round 7, Pick 14, and the cornerback fell to them anyway. The roster fit checks out.
Aiden Fisher at slot 237 is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.