As I’ve done the past several years, I’m examining and testing the predictions I made about the Pittsburgh Steelers 2026 NFL Draft. What did I get right and what did I get so wrong?

As usual, there’s a mixture of both. Let’s look at it below.

What I Got Right
1. Total Number Of Selections

Dave and I had a friendly debate throughout draft season of how many of Pittsburgh’s dozen selections would actually be used. He thought nine, I said 10. After the dust settled on the three trades Omar Khan made, the team came away with 10 players.

Really, there wasn’t a lot of insight I brought with my 10 guess. I made it pretty early in the offseason and stuck with it the whole way. I figured the class would be pretty large and that the team would take advantage of having so many picks, not wanting to chop it down to a “normal” haul of seven or eight players.

A chance to get younger and for the new coaching staff to add players who really fit the vision. Offensively, that shined through with flexible skill players in receivers Germie Bernard and Kaden Wetjen, along with running back/receiver Eli Heidenreich.

2. Total Number of trades

Right before the draft, Dave and I also took guesses at how many trades Pittsburgh would make. I said three, he said two. To be honest, I would’ve said two had I answered first and mostly went with three just to give a differing take. This was hardly some big-brained prediction on my part, but the Steelers made three trades. Two move-ups to acquire WR Germie Bernard and OG Gennings Dunker and one move down in the fifth round to bridge a gap between the fifth and seventh rounds.

Khan has certainly been far more active with draft day trades than Kevin Colbert ever was.

3. The Iowa Kids

From my final mock draft, I got two names right for the second-straight year. Thank you, Iowa. The two Hawkeyes in my mock, Dunker and Wetjen, were selected. I didn’t get them in the exact right slots, I had Dunker in the second when he went in the third and Wetjen in the fifth when he went in the fourth, but I’ll count that as a win all the same. Especially given neither of those guys were pre-draft visitors, making them even harder to guess at.

It’s interesting that only two of Pittsburgh’s 10 selections came in for a visit: QB Drew Allar and Bernard. Makai Lemon was nearly a third, but alas, two is the final result.

For future drafts, betting on the Hawkeyes isn’t a bad idea. Mike McCarthy’s drafts have featured more Iowa kids – eight – than any other school.

4. Day Two Trade-Up For WR

This one came mid-draft. After the Lemon situation was unearthed, it was clear Khan wasn’t going to sit around for a wide receiver again. That night, I tweeted Pittsburgh would make an aggressive Friday night move. Following Tom Pelissero’s reporting the following day saying the same, I guessed the move-up would be for Denzel Boston or Germie Bernard, with Bernard being the better scheme fit.

I fully expect this tonight. Steelers to make aggressive move to go up and trade for a WR. Denzel Boston, Germie Bernard possible targets.

Bernard feels like better fit of two. https://t.co/HcEZZZXKJT

— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) April 24, 2026

The Steelers traded up six spots, No. 53 to No. 47, to select Bernard in the second round.

What I Got Wrong
1. The First Round Pick

Hand up, I completely whiffed on the first-round pick. There’s no shame in not nailing the pick, especially for a team selecting at No. 21 where the board is hard to predict. But Max Iheanachor wasn’t on my radar of candidates to really any degree. Maybe that was the history of Pittsburgh’s first-rounders influencing me too much, but I missed hard on Iheanachor’s selection.

Instead, I focused on receiver first with Indiana’s Omar Cooper Jr. beating out Washington’s Denzel Boston in my last mock.

It might be one of my worst first-round outcomes of the last decade. Even surprise picks like Terrell Edmunds were on my radar more so than Iheanachor was. I definitely need to reevaluate for 2027.

2. Not Mocking A Mid-Round Quarterback

You guys called it. In my final mock draft, you told me I was dumb for not putting a quarterback in the mid-rounds. I’m wearing the dunce cap now. Instead of putting Miami (FL)’s Carson Beck or Penn State’s Drew Allar in the third or fourth round, I put Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar in the seventh.

Swing and a miss.

Allar was the team’s third-round pick, and frankly, one of the easiest calls you could make of this year’s draft class. Pittsburgh’s interest in quarterback was clear, and Allar’s size and cold weather roots, born in Ohio and playing at Penn State, snugly fit with everything Mike McCarthy and Khan talked about. A layup I totally botched.

3. Not Listening On Linebacker

Despite Pittsburgh showing overt signs the team wasn’t going to draft an inside linebacker – not trading Patrick Queen, not cutting Malik Harrison, and re-signing Cole Holcomb – I still put the position in my last mock. Not terribly high, a fifth-rounder in Louisiana’s Jaden Dugger, but it would’ve been wiser to take it off completely.

Similar things could be said about fullback. Despite Mike McCarthy’s history of using a fullback, John Kuhn in Green Bay and Hunter Luepke in Dallas, I didn’t think about that enough in my mock. Pittsburgh took Indiana’s Riley Nowakowski in the fifth round.