Underwhelming Draft

Haven't seen so many reaches since grandma put the cookie jar on the upper shelf. Maybe Mike Tomlin brought a lot more sanity to the draft room than I'd thought. Only move I really liked was the trade up for Germie. He's the only player from this class that I expect to be involved in game action any time soon (maybe Wetjeans will get in to return some kicks, and Noway-kowski in for a play or two). Otherwise, a lot of developmental projects, fringe-players, head-scratchers, and taking guys way ahead of where they would've/should've been taken. Why use pick #76 on a QB so underperforming, inconsistent, and easily rattled as Drew Allar??? I was in favor of taking a flyer on him if he was available late in round 4 or beyond, but why would you spend your top 3rd round pick on him, when there was still so much talent on the board at areas of need? A lot of you are high on Dunker, but the best thing that dude has going for him is his mullet, he has serious balance and movement issues that are going to be hard to get past.

My grade: D

Hope they prove me wrong.

 

WINNER !!!!!
CONGRATS ON WINNING THE POOL!!!!!!

 

The worst Steelers draft in the Khan era. We were all blind sided. This draft is just not congruent with his past drafts.

 

That's because Tomlin had more control of past drafts than most like to admit

 

I give it a C-.

 

How far does this draft set the Steelers back?

 

Didn't some publications declare that Steelers won the FA period?
Maybe we have the roster depth to give these draft picks some time to Develope?

 

I think it's a good draft..It seems they wanted to protect AR a bit better get some talent at WR. Improve field position..Also got another young QB to learn from AR ..IMO this may now be the best Offense the Team has had in awhile..

 

Steelers offense will improve in 2026... no matter who the damn QB is. I think Special Teams will be better, too. Defense is a huge question mark. Like the Everette, Rubio and Spears-Jennings picks, but there should have been more picks on D, IMHO.

 

If there is another one like this next year, then that would be a two-year black hole. I would liken it to the Dolphins 2022 and 2023 empty drafts that led to high spending in free agency to maintain a competitive roster, that resulted in $200 mil dead cap this year.

 

Maybe that's why most of our first round picks since 2015 have been mediocre or busts.

 

A lot of guys we drafted have raw talent and the athleticism, its really going to come down to coaching and mentoring but like gardening it takes patience and time for plants to grow, for immediate results probably not a really good draft but over time with coaching and development? Who knows, possibility some of these guys could develop and make this a good to v good draft class

 

They did some things that I liked.

1. Oline is drastically improved, the depth is really great now.
2. Germie Bernard is a playmaker that gets open on medium routes, he'll fill WR3 well.
3. They added big time athletes to the secondary.
4. Special teams just got a big talent injection (even if I disagree with the 4th round pick) in Wetjen, Heidenreich, Everette, and Spears Jennings.
5. 7 picks had RAS scores of 8+, so they are injecting athleticism.

 

Come off it. Tomlin was there from 2015-22 when they had an appalling and frankly embarrassing run of drafts with one notable exception in 2017.

Let’s see how these guys work out before writing off the Steelers draft. All the mocks and analysts are guessing much more than they’ll want us to believe

 

It's a weird draft for sure. It felt more like a draft for tomorrow instead of today, which is fine if we are starting a rebuild. But that mindset is contrary to hiring McCarthy in the first place. There's a lot of projects and reaches up and down our draft selections, and who knows 3 years from now we could be looking back and talking about how great this draft is; therefore, I'm not completely down on this draft. I just don't understand the strategy/plan when the franchise is supposedly in 'win now' mode.

 

And another one

 

This. Definitely wasn't a "win now" draft.

 

It had BETTER be. The bar is VERY low given the past 6 years under Tomlin and his hand-picked OC clowns. We hired what is considered an offensive minded head coach. If the offense isn't twice as good in 2026, no matter the QB that starts, then yikes.

 

I really never got into all the prospects , mocks etc. this season. I have only heard of 2 players, the kid from Bama and the Penn State QB nobody seems to like .lol Time to watch some highlights, I guess.

 

This was an offense-based draft for sure. I would have liked an ILB or S, but understand why they opted not to. We’d all be complaining about neglecting OL if we skipped those for S and ILB, so it is what it is. Nobody was ever going to be 100% happy. At least we have good players at safety on short term contracts to hold us over. Elliott is back, Brisker gets an opportunity to show he’s worth a long term investment and we have Ramsey too if needed. The ILB room is iffy, as Queen is the only starting caliber guy we have IMO, but I feel like a different scheme might allow some players to thrive where they struggled in Tomlin’s scheme.

We have a big, athletic, talented Tackle, a very good slot WR, a big strong guard, a developmental QB, a starting returner and developmental WR , a fullback, and a receiving RB that will compete to be depth. It was a good haul for the offense.


The defense got a developmental CB, a developmental S, and a depth interior lineman.

To me the collective groaning after a draft is usually based off two things. 1. “They didn’t address an area I think they need as urgently as I liked” or 2. “We took players at picks higher than where they were ranked by some idiot draft ranking site”. The first one is semi valid, even if the organization may disagree with your view. The second is garbage. Who cares where idiot draft sites have these players ranked? If any of them knew what they were talking about they would be working for an NFL front office.

 

Iheanachor is a guy I didn’t see a lot of so I didn’t know what to think, but I like the prospect a lot after looking into him. I didn’t know much about Everette, the FB we took, or the DT we took.

 

What I enjoy most about this draft is how it has pushed the usual whiners off of the deep end

That in itself is worth the price of admission

Me personally I’m going to enjoy my day and wait and see how each actually performs

 

I love all the offensive picks. Mike McCarthy was not brought here to improve the Defense. Steelers need to squeeze every bit of Offensive Genius they can out of Mike McCarthy.

On the Defensive side of the ball, you have a DC that is known for getting the most bang for his buck out of players on the roster; something that has been missing for a very long time in Pittsburgh.

 

We will be much better .AR can still throw it very well he had only 1 real WR now he a lot of weapons..

 

Wow the pitchforks are out in full force!

I liked the fact that it was offensive heavy. Let that overpaid defense figure it out.

We got our #3 receiver in Bernard. We got I believe starters in Dunker and Everette. Got our return man in Wetjen.

Due to Khan's major gaff which will live in infamy i'm hoping that Max can contribute this season.

And I was hoping they would draft a QB in round 3 and Allar fit the bill. Let the competition begin.

B-

But only time will tell.