B-
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers checked most of the boxes and earned a B-.
by aechean ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 2 steals
· 6 reaches
Boards are made to be trusted, and the Steelers shredded theirs for Patrick Payton. He came off 86 spots early, and the room will hear about it. A sturdy weekend that grades out a B-.
A whole weekend of picks and quarterback is somehow still a want. The Clark steal is the beam this whole class leans on. They left with interior defensive lineman solved and the rest of the wish list mostly ticked off.
The weekend tilted hard toward the defense.
In sum, a sturdy weekend with one asterisk, the quarterback spot they never got to.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 21 they get a sideline-to-sideline linebacker at fair value. A real need, handled.
Value said wait; Jacob Rodriguez in the 53rd overall pick says they were not listening. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Harold Perkins Jr. in the 76th pick, miles early. The roster fit checks out.
You do not let an interior defensive lineman like Dontay Corleone reach pick No. 85 and blink. They did not. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Malik Muhammad at the Round 3 slot is right where the board had him, plain and simple. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Bud Clark at Round 4, Pick 21 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They jumped the gun on Mikail Kamara, taking him earlier than his grade liked. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Patrick Payton well ahead of where he belonged. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
They left a pile of value on the table to take Nick Barrett this early at No. 216. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Thaddeus Dixon in slot 224 is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
They paid sticker price for Xavier Nwankpa in the Round 7 slot, and that is fine. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Robert Spears-Jennings in the 237th pick is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.