{"id":858342,"date":"2026-04-07T06:23:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/858342\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T06:23:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:23:30","slug":"pittsburgh-steelers-keeping-wr-prospect-in-play-with-21st-overall-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/858342\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers Keeping WR Prospect ‘In Play’ With 21st Overall Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> will have a new identity when the 2026 season kicks off. In a perfect world, Aaron Rodgers<\/a> will be back leading the charge on offense for Mike McCarthy again. Defensively, obviously, Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt lead the charge. <\/p>\n

Yet, the Steelers can only rely on Rodgers for so much, and so long. The four-time NFL MVP is past his prime, and he\u2019ll need playmakers to help the Steelers\u2019 offense reach its true potential. <\/p>\n

Trading for Michael Pittman will surely help, but is it enough? Pittsburgh may not feel like they\u2019re done at the receiver position, and we\u2019d be willing to bet that Rodgers would agree. <\/p>\n

Recently, Essentially Sports\u2019 NFL insider Tony Pauline<\/a> reported that Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. is \u201cin play\u201d for the Steelers with the 21st overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Pauline adds that most analysts have Cooper as the WR4 in this draft class. <\/p>\n

\u201cCooper is building momentum amongst scouts and receiver coaches,\u201d Pauline wrote. \u201cHe\u2019s athletic and is a terrific pass catcher with a developing game, and people boast about his character. Cooper has spoken with every team from pick 18 to 36. I\u2019m told Cooper is in play for the Pittsburgh Steelers at pick No. 21 despite trading for Michael Pittman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, each individual team crafts its draft boards differently and has various prospects rated higher than others. For all we know, the Steelers view Cooper as someone who could be better than the fourth-best receiver prospect. <\/p>\n

No matter what, the Steelers could certainly use another playmaker in their offense to help take attention from D.K. Metcalf, Pittman, and Pat Freiermuth. <\/p>\n

Related: 6 Best Dexter Lawrence Landing Spots After Trade Request From Giants<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tDedicated NFL copywriter\/editor. My work has been found on Sportsnaut, Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, MSN, Yahoo, and Minnesota Sports … More about Andrew Buller-Russ<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers will have a new identity when the 2026 season kicks off. In a perfect world,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-858342","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\/116361996235061166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858342","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=858342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}