{"id":734169,"date":"2026-02-06T20:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734169\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T20:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:15:17","slug":"steelers-predicted-to-add-electric-1652-yard-playmaker-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734169\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers predicted to add electric 1,652-yard playmaker in 2026 NFL draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> could go in a slew of different directions with their first-round pick in the 2026 NFL draft, but running back is not expected to be one of them.<\/p>\n<p>However, in her latest mock draft, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/cynthia-frelund-2026-nfl-mock-draft-1-0?campaign=Twitter_atn\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cynthia Frelund of NFL.com<\/a> predicts the Steelers will take Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love with the No. 21 overall pick in April.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Love&#8217;s potential impact in both the pass and run game is very high &#8212; like\u00a0\ufeff\ufeffBijan Robinson\ufeff\ufeff\u00a0levels,&#8221; Frelund wrote. &#8220;For him to have a successful rookie season (and one that looks something like Bijan&#8217;s impressive 2025 campaign), he&#8217;ll need a strong O-line that will allow him to adjust to NFL speed and concepts. Pittsburgh had my 10th-best OL this past season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Love is easily the best running back in this year&#8217;s class.<\/p>\n<p>He capped off his college career by posting 1,652 yards from scrimmage, including 1,372 rushing yards. He also scored a whopping 21 total touchdowns, with 18 of those coming on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers do have a need at running back with Kenneth Gainwell set to hit free agency, and with there being serious doubts about Kaleb Johnson&#8217;s viability, but they also have Jaylen Warren under contract, so the need isn&#8217;t dire.<\/p>\n<p>That said, if Love falls this far in the draft, something we are very skeptical about, Pittsburgh could spring for him.<\/p>\n<p>After all, Love is an elite prospect and the Steelers need more explosiveness in the offense that he can provide, both as a runner and pass-catcher. He&#8217;s also a complete three-down back thanks to his pass-blocking ability.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, the Steelers come away with a wide receiver or quarterback in this spot, but we wouldn&#8217;t be mad if Pittsburgh ultimately decided to take one of the most talented players in this year&#8217;s draft.<\/p>\n<p>More NFL news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers could go in a slew of different directions with their first-round pick in the 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-734169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","13":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116025525835515726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734169","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=734169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}