The Official 2026 NFL Draft Thread (No Spoilers)

I think it was, the war room looked liked they'd all been taking swigs froma bucket of cold sick after the pick was announced.

They were also desperately on the phones trying to get out of it...

 

I guess that’s better than stupid is what stupid does?

What did you think about the debacle last night?

 

So , and understand I'm just asking, so you actually think the 5th tackle taken in the draft was less of a reach then all the positions that had only one pick, or none taken??
For Example we need CBs, and Safeties there was only one of each taken by our pick, and that's not counting all the other positions. Tackle is not the only need on this team.

 

This is what I'm getting at. What happened last night would have been blamed on Tomlin if he was still here, and yet I have tried telling people he wasn't our GM, and yet this is almost exactly like the Broderick Jones pick. The 4th, or 5th tackle taken in the draft just because they need a tackle, they take a project with little experience, and there were many other positions available to take more worthy of the 1st round. Only difference is Tomlin is not here to blame it on.

 

The clock was well under a minute for them to pick. They were clueless once Lemon was plucked before their very eyes.

 

There is a reason none of those corners were taken. I believe wholeheartedly in building the trenches first. This guy wasnt on my radar, but people i have a lot of respect for love the pick(cowher being one of them). I wanted Vega, but I'm guessing the cost to move up in front of the ravens was too high. My second choice was Lemon, but after looking into him more not drafting him really doesn't bother me at all. He’s slow. He’s small and he is only a slot receiver. Grab bisontis/pregnon/gunter in the second and a wr and we will be fine.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't recall seeing many complaints about the Jones pick back in 2023... They also traded up for him, which is very rare for the Steelers before the Jets, (who needed a LT pick at that time) were able to take him.

 

This guy has over twice as many starts as jones. Hell he just started playing football 5 years ago.

 

I have no proof of this, but I believe the panic happened when the tackle Freeling was taken a few picks before, and then they scrambled to take their next best Wr Lemon, and then that was taken, and then they panicked, and reached.

 

He is inexperience as a LT, and did even play football until very late

 

Reached according to whom? The big boards put together by talking heads? The steelers like every other team have their own big boards. The rankings by tom, dick, and harry arent worth the paper they’re printed on.

 

Thats great , that covers CB, what about Safety, LB, DT, Wr, G, and so on. No freaking way You, or anyone is going to make me believe they had the 5th tackle taken in the draft , and he was even the 3rd tackle on their board.
I believe in taking whomever is best left, no matter what position, unless you have 10 HOF players at that position

 

Then You did see me posting. Gonzalez was my pick. We could have Gonzalez, and Porter right now instead of a LT with a hurt neck that may not play again.

 

I believe in you even though I don't remember this, since it was 3 years ago, but the sad thing is that some members on this board would be a better GM on draft night than Khan!

 

Especially considering that the guy who they were going to take - Lemon - was not expected to drop that far in the first place. I'd be willing to bet that once the Vikings drafted Banks, the FO figured Freeling, Lemon, Max - we'll get one of them. Freeling went next and they assumed the Cowboys weren't going WR at 20 so it would be Lemon. The embarrassment was making the call. Other than that they likely were satisfied with one of those three. If they didn't know who to take then they should have probably traded down. The problem with that is there was really only Max or Lomu who'd be considered in that tier of tackle and at least three teams (New England, Houston and San Fran) who would be on the prowl for OL.

 

I'm blaming Tomlin for this pick, even though he is not coach anymore!

 

I do believe if we went back and looked these are the same arguments I heard when we drafted Broderick Jones, and I wanted Gonzalez instead.
I said he was a reach, I was told he wasn't, and that Gonzalez wasn't that good. Believe me I hope I'm wrong, but I wasn't then.
If You take the 5th Tackle in the 1st round, and their are many other positions that haven't been touched, or have had only one player taken, You probably have reached.

 

LoL

 

I don’t think they did either. Some people think so… it’s pretty apparent we wanted Lemon, but Philly traded in front of us. We drafted the guy we wanted next, even if we were trying to

I doubt they just sat there and panicked. They spent days upon days crafting a big board. There is no reason to believe that they didn't just move to the next guy on their board once their top guy (Lemon) got taken. We winded the time down because we obviously had a trade offer to trade back. McCarthy, Khan, and Weidl were likely just mulling over their comfortability trading back.... is the compensation in return worth moving back and risking not getting the last tackle we had highly rated? They obviously made the decision that it wasn't worth the risk and took their guy.

Everybody gave Tomlin a bunch of hell because he was a "pick is in" guy right when we went on the clock. We have zero idea how McCarthy likes to play it. Maybe he is more open to dealing picks and trading back than the previous HC was? It could be common practice for him... we don't know. Its all BS anyways because the picks are in WELL before they get announced (or even updated as "pick is in" on tv). My brother was on X and was two picks ahead of TV. He knew Ty Simpson got picked by LA before the TV had announced Dallas' selection of Downs (knew pick 13 before tv announced pick 11).

I think everyone is trying their hardest to find reasons to crap on the Steelers because we picked someone that was rated outside of the top 21 prospects in many (but not all) of the idiot pundits' player ranking lists.... I understand people having player preferences or player profile preferences, and that is fine. But to sit here and act like our FO is completely incompetent in their process because someone jumped us and took a player we liked is ridiculous. You don't have to like the player/pick/process, but I've been in management long enough to know that successful people don't tend to "luck out" consistently. We've been successful as a franchise for a long time. There is zero chance that we have an amateur operation that has slipped on a banana peel, done a perfect triple backflip, and then landed on its feet. You don't have to love ownership or the FO, but their sustained success is a symptom of being good at what they do, not getting lucky.

 

I believe you can dig it up. Let's hope that we are wrong, and our 1st round pick is awesome, and all our next picks will be awesome. I'd rather we be great than I be correct.

 

I've been wanting Steelers to draft CB in round one, even though we recently drafted JPJ. Steelers have dropped the ball too many times in recent years on Safety and CB, IMO.

 

You just wanted a corner.... don't lie lol

Sometimes there are just a lot of good players at one position. The fifth best OT could be the best of the bunch, you never know. I actually wanted Gonzalez too, but was fine with Jones. I was even better with the selection after nabbing Porter Jr. at 32, and he's turned out to be just as good as Gonzalez. It sucks that Broderick didn't pan out the way we wanted, but just because he didn't it doesn't mean Iheanachor won't.

 

You did. I also preferred Gonzalez. I wondered if they had assured the Patriots they weren't taking him to get that trade done. That was part of the swap coming at a relatively cheap price.

 

Of course I did, but, I didn't think one was worthy until the 2nd, and I actually thought we should take a Tackle until the 3 that I thought was worthy of a 1st round was already taken. Then I thought we should go Safety. They may not have panicked, but they definitely reached. If you are taking the 5th player of any position, and there are positions that haven't even been touched, or hardly, then you probably reached. Does this mean he won't be good?? No. He definitely could be, and I hope he is.