Pittsburgh is getting the NFL’s second-biggest annual event this weekend with the draft in town. It’s unlikely Pittsburgh will ever get the NFL’s biggest annual event, though.
Steelers owner Art Rooney II says he’d love to see a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh, but he knows what a long shot it is.
“I wouldn’t take it off the table,” Rooney said on WDVE. “It’s definitely a long shot, and there’s a lot of other cities like us that would love to do that, So maybe maybe it’s down the road a little ways, but I wouldn’t take anything off the table. Let’s put it that way.”
Most NFL owners wouldn’t want a Pittsburgh Super Bowl without a dome in the city, and Rooney says that’s not happening.
“Not in my lifetime, let’s put it that way,” Rooney said when asked if Pittsburgh would ever be a dome city. “Football is an outdoor sport as far as I’m concerned, and I think most Pittsburghers would agree. There’s nothing better than going out and seeing the game with the snow flying and it’s it’s a lot of fun on those kinds of days.”
Pittsburgh also doesn’t have enough hotel rooms for a Super Bowl, which would mean getting the game would require having thousands of attendees stay in cruise ships on the Three Rivers, similar to what Jacksonville did with cruise ships in the St. Johns River when it hosted Super Bowl XXXIX. That’s not impossible, but Rooney knows it’s unlikely.
Steelers Clips
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.
To this point, Aaron Rodgers has not revealed whether or not he will be back with the Steelers in 2026.
That means Will Howard and Mason Rudolph are getting the bulk of the work at quarterback early on in the offseason program under new head coach Mike McCarthy.
But should Rodgers make that choice to return for a 22nd pro season, McCarthy said on Tuesday that he’s confident it won’t take Rodgers long to get up to speed.
“I think Aaron is probably more in tune than we would realize,” McCarthy said, via Mike DeFabo of TheAthletic.com. “But I have confidence in where he would be the day he would arrive, if that’s his decision.
“What l’ve learned through instituting an offseason program, there are benefits of periods where your veterans aren’t here. When we’re talking about the quarterback position, this is a very beneficial time for Will and Mason right now. They split all the reps the last two days.”
With Rodgers obviously familiar with McCarthy from their shared time with the Packers, Howard and Rudolph are benefiting from more time with the coaches to get comfortable with the offensive system.
We’ll see if the Steelers add another quarterback to the mix with this week’s draft and whether or not that factors into Rodgers’ decision.
In Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin wanted volunteers, not hostages. He has now volunteered for a new assignment.
Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reports that Tomlin will join NBC’s Football Night in America.
Tomlin resigned from the Steelers after 19 seasons on the job, two Super Bowl appearances, one Super Bowl win, and never a losing record. Many will assume it’s a short-term stint in TV before a return to coaching. Time will tell whether Tomlin has made a more permanent career change.
He’ll be great on TV. He has always been a master communicator, with a long list of catchphrases — some of which seemingly were crafted in the moment. If so, that will serve him well on NBC.
Tomlin’s arrival comes at a time when the NBC pregame show is in flux. Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy will not be returning. NBC has made no announcements regarding other possible changes. (And they don’t tell me anything.)
Marchand notes in his article that yours truly “is expected” to return. I can state a little more clearly that I’ll be back for a 17th season. Unless and until I show up and my ID won’t scan. Which is something I’ve been bracing for throughout most of the first 16 seasons.
The NFL changed the rules for this year’s draft, limiting teams to eight minutes between first-round picks. Some NFL general managers are not happy about that.
Steelers GM Omar Khan said he preferred the old rule of 10 minutes between first-round picks.
“I’d love to have 10 minutes, but it’s the same for everybody else,” Khan said. “Eight minutes is what it is, but those two minutes, it feels like an eternity sometimes.”
After Khan said that at the Steelers’ pre-draft press conference, head coach Mike McCarthy joked that if Khan feels rushed during the draft, he should try calling plays on the sideline during a game.
“I only get 40 seconds to call a play,” McCarthy said. “We’ll be fine.”
Khan said he and other GMs have been talking more about trades in the days leading up to the draft because they know they’ll have less time to work out trades while they’re on the clock.
“They moved the first round from 10 minutes to eight minutes, so naturally we’ve been having more conversations to set parameters of what the value is if you move up to this spot or trade back,” Khan said. “There’s more conversation, but until we get there, I’m not sure how that’s going to go.”
This is the first time the NFL has changed the timing of the first round since 2008, when the time between picks was reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. The timing for Rounds 2-7 remains the same as last year: Teams get seven minutes to make picks in the second round, five minutes in Rounds 3-6 and four minutes in round 7.
The Steelers disputed a report that left tackle Broderick Jones had a setback from a neck injury that required surgery during the offseason.
General Manager Omar Khan and coach Mike McCarthy, though, acknowledged that uncertainty remains over Jones’ future. Jones’ main hurdle is regaining full strength in his upper body.
“Nothing has changed with Broderick,” Khan said Monday, via Mark Kaboly of The Pat McAfee Show. “He is still working to get back to where he needs to be. Nothing has changed there. No new information since we last spoke in March [at the NFL annual owners meeting].”
Jones injured his neck in Week 12 of last season, and he has since undergone spinal fusion surgery.
He worked with the “medical group” on the first day of the team’s offseason program, according to McCarthy.
“We are really trying to establish a common language,” McCarthy said. “We went over the fundamentals of football today. They haven’t changed. How you talk about it and how you drill them. We are really starting at the beginning and going through it. He has participated, so that’s not a problem.”
The Steelers will not exercise the fifth-year option on Jones’ contract.
