The 2026 NFL Draft has come and gone. In many ways, the draft was a massive success. The city of Pittsburgh broke the NFL Draft attendance record — previously set by Detroit in 2024 — with a whopping 805,000 people in attendance over the weekend. The Steelers made 10 picks in total, filling several positions of need.

But take a scroll through our website’s comment section, social media, or have a chat with Yinzers at your favorite local sports bar, and you’ll get wildly different opinions on the Black and Gold’s draft class. Heck, check out our staff’s grades on some of the different individual selections made, and you’ll see a microcosm of how polarizing the Steelers approach was.

Personally, I’d like to think that I (Ryan) tend to keep an even keel when analyzing anything the Steelers do. I’m not afraid to call out what I perceive as mistakes, but I also rarely adopt a “the sky is falling” attitude, especially regarding transactions. More importantly, I acknowledge that football can make our strongest-held opinions look foolish with time. Call me an optimistic pessimist, if you will.

With such varying opinions on this class, I thought it would be a useful exercise to talk through the narratives surrounding the Steelers’ draft. While I have my own thoughts and opinions that I will argue in this exercise, I will also provide the case for the opposite opinion, whether that’s making the argument against myself or inviting a fellow BTSC writer to do so. I have a lot of thoughts — and let’s be real, this first article won’t exactly be “short” — so I plan to break this exploration up into at least two separate posts, if not more.

For this article, I’m tabbing Joey Bray to make the argument against the Iheanachor pick.

But enough blathering, let’s start at the beginning.

PRO: Truthfully, I may have been one of the few Steelers fans who were jumping for joy with this pick. To set the scene, I was in the breakroom at my day job when the Eagles trade happened. As the green graphic flashed on the television, I turned to our sports anchor — I work at a TV news station in Seattle — and said: “I actually hope this is the Eagles leaping us for Makai Lemon and not for a tackle.” When the Steelers’ pick finally came down and was announced as Max Iheanachor, I jumped out of my seat and gave some vigorous high-fives to my amused and somewhat befuddled coworker.

Anybody who’s been following my contributions to BTSC’s draft coverage knows that Iheanachor was a prospect near the top of my board, including mocking him to the Steelers on a Mock Draft Monday entry on March 2 and including him in my Draft Gem series, even though I acknowledged he was likely to be a first-round pick.

Whispers online today PIT could move up for an OL and not Ioane… I'm just thinking out loud,especially cuz he's been one of MY GUYS this whole process… If a non-30 visit is in play…Why wouldn't the Hines Ward connect not also cover Max Iheanachor? @byjoeybray @_Ryland_B

My enthusiasm was certainly not universally shared, however, even among the BTSC staff.

A. I don’t think he isB. Even if he is, I hate the argument. I’d MUCH rather have a great WR and fine OT than a great OT and a fine WR. Need playmakers. https://t.co/CrOwhAxsjv

It is so perfectly Steelers that the story of the first round in PITTSBURGH is that the Steelers first round pick was not the first guy they called to say they were going to take him!

Last tirade before I call it. The Eagles not only stole Lemon, but they took away a moment. Crowd would have went crazy. Lemon would have been greeted by the Yinzers. Similar to Matthew Golden in Green Bay. Double whammy! Good luck to Max – he doesn’t deserve this!

A lot of the negative reaction seems to revolve around the optics of not only getting leapfrogged for the pick, but that the Steelers were on the phone with Lemon when the Eagles traded up, and the selection was announced. I won’t argue that the optics for that are poor, especially with the follow-up reporting seeming to indicate that Mike McCarthy’s connections to Dallas on the current Steelers staff might have given the Cowboys a window of opportunity to exploit.

That said, I don’t find this all that embarrassing. I find any implication that the Steelers panicked when picking Iheanachor to be detached from reality. Comments that he was a second or third-round talent seemingly come from fans whose first exposure to the draft class was on Thursday night. While Iheanachor was considered No. 28 on consensus boards, Ryland Bickley and I have talked about “the tackle tax” plenty and foresaw a run happening in front of the Steelers’ pick at 21. If you’ve been reading our work, this shouldn’t have been that surprising to you.

I also think it’s useful to remind the fanbase that this phone call snafu is far more common than they might think. The Steelers even once did this to the Cowboys!

It was mindful of the time the Cowboys were on the phone w Ryan Shazier when the Steelers called and drafted Shazier. Cowboys were not happy, just like the Steelers. https://t.co/PFn3qpmrsh

There is also the seemingly eternal debate about whether offensive tackle or wide receiver is a better value. While I think the truth is more nuanced and depends on specific draft classes and prospects, most years I lean more towards tackle. For me, it comes down to the simple fact that it’s harder to find a tackle outside of Round 1 than it is to find a receiver. Of the 64 projected starting tackles in the NFL next year, 37 (58%) were first-round picks. Of the remaining 27 projected starters, 37% (10) of those were second-round picks. Meanwhile, if we look at the top-three projected receivers on each NFL team, just 32% are first-round picks. This year, seven tackles were selected on Day 1, and there were zero tackles drafted in the second round. And while five receivers heard their name in the first round this year, there were 12 taken between the second and third rounds. The opportunity cost to acquire a potential starting tackle is unquestionably higher.

Yes, the Steelers were prepared to select Lemon, but I do think it’s fair to wonder if spending a first on a player who would likely be relegated to a WR3 role — especialy if the youth-adverse Aaron Rodgers returns — would have been the wisest use of resources with the glaring hole at tackle and DK Metcalf ($32.5 million) and Michael Pittman Jr. ($26 million) both set to have cap hits north of $20 million starting in 2027. Now knowing that the Steelers were able to welcome Germie Bernard into the fold, I also think they come away with a receiver whose blocking ability will allow them to run a more diverse menu of plays from 11 personnel than they would have with Lemon.

I also can’t wrap my head around the notion that the Steelers shouldn’t draft a first-round tackle because of Broderick Jones. The common arguments I hear are that spending a third pick in four years on offensive tackle is a “luxury” and that the team missed on Jones, so they shouldn’t risk it again. Neither holds water for me. Opinions on Jones may very — though I think most of you agree with me that we can count Jones as a miss — but regardless, his health following his neck injury is a real question mark. If he were to miss time, is it sound process to trust Dylan Cook — a 28-year-old developmental project with just five starts and 348 NFL snaps to his name — or a mid-round rookie to shoulder that burden? I suspect fans would complain that the Steelers neglected the depth chart should Cook struggle or be injured himself.