B
Pittsburgh Steelers
Rivers should have been long gone. The Steelers pounced, and earned a B.
by meh meh ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 10 steals
· 0 reaches
The Steelers spent the weekend waiting on one name, and it fell: Chandler Rivers, the No. 101 name on the board, in the 135th overall pick. Good, not great, and the B says as much.
They covered a lot of ground and still skipped safety, which is a strange place to end up. On the needs board they went 6 of 9, with quarterback the one that mattered most. Value over need was the throughline, for better and worse.
Add it up and it is a good, unfussy class.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 21 they get a sideline-to-sideline linebacker at a price that makes it sweeter. A clean fit for the roster.
A tidy bit of business in the 53rd pick, where Emmanuel Pregnon graded well above the range. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
They stopped a slide they were happy to see, landing Christen Miller in pick 76. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
A straight-up fair deal on Skyler Bell at Round 3, Pick 21, value and slot in agreement. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A top-tier interior defensive lineman at a bargain, Dontay Corleone in slot 99, plain and simple. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
You do not let a wide receiver like De'Zhaun Stribling reach the Round 4 slot and blink. They did not. The roster fit checks out.
Chandler Rivers at the 135th overall pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Charles Demmings slid further than he should have, and pick No. 161 is lovely value for the cornerback. A need, and now a little less of one.
The board had Cole Payton higher than the 216th overall pick, and the quarterback fell to them anyway. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Dallen Bentley at pick No. 224 is money in the bank, a tight end taken below his worth. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
No drama and no debate, Brandon Cleveland went about where he belonged in slot 230. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They read the board right and Tyren Montgomery was the payoff at the Round 7 slot. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.