B-
Pittsburgh Steelers
More right than wrong for the Steelers, and a B- to prove it.
by aechean ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 3 steals
· 5 reaches
The Steelers went off the board in a big way for Deven Eastern, 44 picks early. Conviction is one thing; this is another. It does the job without flash, and the B- reflects it.
The Haulcy steal is the beam this whole class leans on. A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 21 they get an anchor for the offensive line. Need was not the driver here.
A straight-up fair deal on Emmanuel McNeil-Warren at No. 53, value and slot in agreement. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
A.J. Haulcy in the 76th pick should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Germie Bernard at the 85th overall pick is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
A big swing on Harold Perkins Jr. at Round 3, Pick 35, well ahead of any board in the building. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
They let Tacario Davis come to them and pounced at the Round 4 slot. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
They paid sticker price for CJ Daniels in pick No. 135, and that is fine. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Drew Allar at pick 161 nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Nick Barrett at slot 216 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Bryce Foster at the 224th pick is the pick scouts circle, and not in a good way. They added to a strength when a need was still open elsewhere.
They paid up for Fa'alili Fa'amoe at No. 230 when waiting would have done the job. Depth on depth, at a spot that was hardly crying out.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Deven Eastern in the 237th overall pick, miles early. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.