B-
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers fleeced the room on the phones and earned a B-.
by aechean ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 25 picks
· 7 steals
· 10 reaches
If confidence were a draft strategy, the Steelers would have aced it. Patrick Payton at the 165th overall pick is 82 spots clear of where he belonged. Nothing here to lose sleep over; call it a B-.
The phones were where this weekend was really won. That is a cornerback worth more than the slot they spent on him, plainly.
The roster is better shaped than it was, with quarterback chief among the fixes.
Add it up and it is a good, unfussy class.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a plug-and-play piece up front at fair value.
In No. 27 they get a pocket-collapsing interior rusher at fair value. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
In the 28th overall pick they get the heartbeat of the defense. A real need, handled.
A tidy bit of business in pick 76, where Dontay Corleone graded well above the range. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They reached into another round for Nicholas Singleton, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Deion Burks in the 89th pick. It fills a real need, too.
Value said wait; Harold Perkins Jr. in No. 98 says they were not listening. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Malik Muhammad in Round 3, Pick 35 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A clean, defensible pick in the Round 4 slot with a little surplus value in Bud Clark. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
They stopped a slide they were happy to see, landing Ja'Kobi Lane in slot 107. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
CJ Daniels in pick No. 121 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. The roster fit checks out.
The board screamed and they did not listen, reaching into the next round for Drew Allar. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
A straight-up fair deal on Parker Brailsford at the 127th overall pick, value and slot in agreement. They added to a strength when a need was still open elsewhere.
They let Michael Trigg come to them and pounced at the 129th pick. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Davison Igbinosun in the Round 4 slot is a gift, value that borders on unfair. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Zane Durant in No. 135, miles early. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
A reach on Jaeden Roberts in slot 141; the board had better options right there. Depth on depth, at a spot that was hardly crying out.
Charles Demmings slipping to pick 161 is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
They reached a country mile for Patrick Payton at the 165th pick, and the board is aghast. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They took Domani Jackson at par in the 168th overall pick, which is nothing to complain about. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Isaiah Nwokobia in pick No. 204 is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Nick Barrett at Round 6, Pick 35 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
The board had Thaddeus Dixon higher than Round 7, Pick 14, and the cornerback fell to them anyway. A need, and now a little less of one.
Barion Brown at pick No. 237 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. It fills a real need, too.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Xavier Nwankpa at slot 243. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.