Earlier this month, the NFL announced the 16 prospects who were attending the draft in person. Seventeen have shown up this week.
According to the league, Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman is in Pittsburgh this week as the 17th prospect celebrating his selection in person.
The late addition of Thieneman to the guest list makes sense considering Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has reported that the Steelers “really like” Thieneman.
Thieneman is among the best safety prospects after Ohio State’s Caleb Downs. Thieneman, a Purdue transfer, had 96 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, a sack and two interceptions in 2025.
He joins five players from Ohio State, including Downs, and 11 other prospects in Pittsburgh.
The presumptive No. 1 overall pick, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, is among the invitees not attending the draft this year. Mendoza wants to celebrate with family, including his mother, Elsa, who has Multiple Sclerosis, at home in South Florida.
Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy has worked with plenty of talented receivers in his past who are still tearing up the league.
Among others, he had Davante Adams in Green Bay and CeeDee Lamb in Dallas. Adams led the league with 14 receiving touchdowns for the Rams last season, while Lamb recorded his fifth consecutive season with at least 1,000 yards.
Now that McCarthy is with the Steelers, how does he view DK Metcalf?
“I don’t really like to get into comparables because I’ve been so blessed to work with so many great players, but also just about DK, his skill set is top-notch,” McCarthy said in his Tuesday press conference. “When you can take slants and different vertical routes to the house, he’s so powerful and he’s so strong, so just trying to get to know his strengths and how we can utilize him.
“We’ll try to build a route menu for him particularly, not different than all of the conversations we’ve had about receivers because I think it’s critical that they play the 1 position, the 2 position, or the 3 position. So, we’ll continue to look at that for DK.”
Metcalf, 28, caught 59 passes for 850 yards with six touchdowns in 2025, his first season with the Steelers. The wideout’s best season came back in 2020, when he caught 83 receptions for a career-high 1,303 yards with 10 TDs.
Steelers owner Art Rooney II persuaded the NFL to move Ravens fans behind Steelers fans at the 2026 NFL draft in Pittsburgh.
Rooney said on WDVE that when he saw the initial layout for where each of the 32 teams’ fans would be told to congregate, there was an area where Ravens fans had better seats than Steelers fans. Rooney got the NFL to change that.
“I did ask that, you know, on the normal seating chart, I noticed that the Ravens fans were sitting in front of the Steeler fans in one section of the draft theater. So I asked them to make that change, and they agreed to make that change,” Rooney said.
Rooney said that the draft will be a celebration of the city of Pittsburgh, the Steelers and football’s rich history in Western Pennsylvania, and that the league has been very good about allowing the Steelers to have a voice in running the event.
“When you’re hosting the draft the league lets you do some things you don’t normally do during the draft,” Rooney said.
And that includes veto power over the seating chart.
All the Steelers’ veteran players have played only for head coach Mike Tomlin during their time in Pittsburgh, but new head coach Mike McCarthy says he’s impressed with how the players have responded to a different approach this offseason.
The departure of Tomlin after 19 seasons left McCarthy with the job of having to work with veteran players on a new way of doing things, and he said those players have accepted his coaching and appear eager to get to work.
“The buy-in is excellent,” McCarthy said. “You have to make changes, there’s things you’re going to adjust, and there’s things you’re going to emphasize. . . . I think the buy-in has been excellent.”
As a new head coach, McCarthy is allowed to start his offseason program two weeks earlier than teams retaining the same head coach from last year, and McCarthy said that’s valuable time to get to know his players.
“I think this is awesome that they give you the extra two weeks,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy wants all the time he can have to teach the Steelers his way of doing things, and so far he likes how they’re responding.
Steelers owner Art Rooney II said last month that he expected to know quarterback Aaron Rodgers’s plans for the 2026 season by the start of the draft, but all indications out of Pittsburgh this week have been that Rodgers will be taking a little longer before making up his mind.
On Tuesday, Rooney confirmed that Rodgers has not informed the team of his decision about playing this year and declined to offer any details about when a final answer might be coming beyond saying that it was “warm” to say that the team would expect to have more clarity by the time OTAs start on May 18.
“I wish I could tell you we’re at the end of the discussion, but we’re still talking to Aaron and he’s still deciding what he wants to do,” Rooney said on WDVE. “I think we’re close. He’s kind of told us his time frame and what he’s going to be up to over the next couple of weeks. I think we’ll have an answer soon, let’s put it that way.”
Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy said on Tuesday that he doesn’t think it will take long for Rodgers to be up to speed if he does decide to play. Until then, it will be Will Howard and Mason Rudolph at quarterback during Pittsburgh’s offseason program.
