{"id":673343,"date":"2026-01-13T06:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/673343\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T06:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:25:13","slug":"pittsburgh-steelers-2026-nfl-draft-order-1st-round-pick-set-after-wild-card-loss-to-texans-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/673343\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers 2026 NFL Draft order: 1st-round pick set after Wild Card loss to Texans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With the loss to the Houston Texans on Monday night, the Steelers\u2019 season is officially over. There will be some time in the coming days to reflect on the season\u2019s highs and lows, but all eyes eventually look forward to the NFL Draft. The Steelers now know where they\u2019ll be picking in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Updated 2026 NFL Draft order<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Coming into Wild Card Weekend, picks 1-18 were already cemented. Now, with six more teams eliminated from the playoffs, the picture is all the more clear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/operations.nfl.com\/journey-to-the-nfl\/the-nfl-draft\/the-rules-of-the-draft\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL Operations<\/a>, picks are awarded based on a team\u2019s record, disregarding what seed they were in the playoffs. In the instances of a tie, the team whose strength of schedule was weaker is awarded the more valuable pick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Pittsburgh was the only team to go 10-7 in 2025, making the math for their draft slot rather simple. The only playoff teams with worse records were Carolina and Green Bay, meaning the Steelers will once again be picking 21st (my favorite number, for whatever little that\u2019s worth). The Steelers most recently picked 21st in the 2025 draft.<br \/>Here is the full draft order so far, with eight teams remaining in title contention:<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh and the history of the 21st pick<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Steelers have picked from the 21st spot five times in team history:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While I won\u2019t say that it is a treasure trove compared to any other draft slot, there is a fairly good list of players that have been chosen 21st over the years, especially in the last 30 years or so:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">This draft should be a special one for Steelers fans, as Pittsburgh is playing host. What do you want to see the Steelers do with the 21st pick? Let us know in the comments! <\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the loss to the Houston Texans on Monday night, the Steelers\u2019 season is officially over. There will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,6,15,2376],"class_list":{"0":"post-673343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-draft","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115886366915690829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}