{"id":866154,"date":"2026-04-14T10:51:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/866154\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T10:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:51:26","slug":"analyst-has-interesting-proposal-for-how-steelers-should-handle-left-tackle-in-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/866154\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst Has Interesting Proposal For How Steelers Should Handle Left Tackle In Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Offensive tackle is a big need for the Steelers, Matt Williamson believes, but can they address it without drafting a tackle? The veteran draft analyst offered an interesting proposal about how Pittsburgh should handle the situation this offseason. While he isn\u2019t writing either Broderick Jones or Dylan Cook off, he believes they must do something.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not, I can\u2019t repeat this enough, you do not want to go shopping outside of the draft for a starting offensive tackle. You will overpay and you won\u2019t be happy with the player\u201d, Williamson told Tim Benz on the Breakfast with Benz podcast<\/a>. He pointed out former Steelers fourth-round draft pick Dan Moore Jr., who signed a big contract in free agency a year ago as a top left tackle. If they don\u2019t have an answer soon, they could be looking at the same market, he fears.<\/p>\n

But the issue he sees is that the guard class is stronger than the tackle class. At the same time, this is a guard class full of prospects who can play tackle. Or tackle prospects who might be better off starting at guard at the next left. So what he suggests the Steelers do is draft a lineman who can play guard as a rookie and move to tackle later on, as early as 2027. While a tackle-to-guard transition is more common, the reverse is also done. Yet his top pick is certainly an interesting one.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy man crush is Max Iheanachor from Arizona State<\/a> because for several reasons, I think he\u2019s the ideal guy to start his career at guard and then go to tackle\u201d, the Steelers draft analyst said. Born in Africa, Williamson describes him as being relatively new to football, but \u201cHe\u2019s just learning how to kill as we speak\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Steelers Depot\u2019s initial analysis didn\u2019t pick him as a first-round talent, he is a tackle identified as a player rising up the draft boards<\/a> more recently. He is a player who would need to grow, but could he start at guard right away?<\/p>\n

Either way, Williamson is convinced the Steelers need to do something at tackle in the draft, for one specific reason. \u201cNext year, I can\u2019t be having this conversation with you and say the Steelers\u2019 two biggest needs going into this draft are quarterback and left tackle\u201d, he said. \u201cBecause you can\u2019t get both, especially if you\u2019re going to have to trade up for a quarterback. It has to be one or the other\u201d.<\/p>\n

Again, he reiterated that maybe the Steelers would be fine with Jones and Cook at tackle, but if both fail and you don\u2019t draft another option, then you\u2019re looking at a very bad scenario in 2027. If you do into a draft needing a franchise quarterback and a left tackle, you\u2019re in trouble.<\/p>\n

While Williamson named Iheanachor, he sees other guard-to-tackle draft prospects for the Steelers. Spencer Fano and Kadyn Proctor are all on his radar. He believes any of them could start at left guard this year and left tackle next year. But he sees Caleb Lomu as one pure tackle who could work.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, he believes this year\u2019s tackle-capable draft class is too good for the Steelers to ignore. \u201cWhat never, ever happens is playoff teams being able to pick a true tackle in the 20s. And there may be three or four that go to playoff teams, maybe even starting with Pittsburgh at 21\u201d, he argued. \u201cAnd I think Lomu\u2019s like the perfect example of that\u201d.<\/p>\n

On top of that, Williamson questions whether you can find your future tackle after the first round. Conversely, he sees several potential options at guard. While he believes one of the top two picks must be a wide receiver, he is on board with drafting two linemen early. And perhaps the Steelers should be, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Offensive tackle is a big need for the Steelers, Matt Williamson believes, but can they address it without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2055],"tags":[4955,51612,7,35141,54564,6,520,57,2360,426,67749,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-866154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-breakfast-with-benz","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-matt-williamson","12":"tag-max-iheanachor","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-pittsburgh","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","17":"tag-steelers","18":"tag-tim-benz","19":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116402683801955951","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866154","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=866154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}