On Friday night, Eagles first-round receiver Makai Lemon was ringing the bell at the Celtics-76ers playoff game. The night before, he was on the horn with the Steelers, who were planning to take him with the 21st pick in the draft.
Unbeknownst to Pittsburgh, the Eagles had jumped up to pick No. 20. And Philly wasn’t able to get through to Lemon, since he was talking to the Steelers.
Former Eagles exec Jake Rosenberg noted on Friday that the Steelers may have run afoul of the rules by talking directly to Lemon at a time when the Eagles were attempting to reach him.
On Friday, we asked the league about the rule regarding calling prospects when another team is on the clock. Here’s the response we received earlier today: “The league reviews all aspects of the Draft the week after its conclusion.”
Obviously, the Steelers’ call to Lemon will fall within the scope of that review.
It seemed to be an innocent mistake, and the Eagles likely would have picked Lemon in that spot even if they couldn’t have made the perfunctory phone call before doing so. Besides, the embarrassment of having it known that tackle Max Iheanachor was Plan B is arguably punishment enough.
Steelers Clips
On December 23, 1972, the Steelers got their first win in playoff history with a play for the ages. Last night, for the first time since quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw the pass that became the Immaculate Reception, he held the ball again.
Bradshaw was handed the ball during a draft event at the Nemacolin resort, located roughly 70 miles from Pittsburgh.
“It’s a little deflated,” Bradshaw said once he got the ball. “Must have been up in New England.”
A fan named Jim Baker had ended up with the Immaculate Reception ball, which was used for the extra point after Franco Harris caught the pass and ran to the end zone.
Here’s where the ball should go next — into the hands of the Franco statue at the Pittsburgh International Airport.
As Steelers fans wait for a certain 42-year-old quarterback to decide whether he wants to be a Steeler again, the Steelers have added another quarterback.
With the 76th pick, the Steelers selected former Penn State quarterback Drew Allar.
So what does that mean for Aaron Rodgers?
“I don’t believe that has any impact on Aaron,” quarterbacks coach Tom Arth said Friday, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “Certainly, we’re here for Drew and excited about his moment and excited to have him in this room.”
On Wednesday, a day before the draft got started, I asked Steelers defensive lineman and unquestioned team leader Cam Heyward what to tell Steelers fans who were confused and concerned about the status of the quarterback position in Pittsburgh.
“Patience with the process,” Heyward said. “The team is still growing and right now we have two quarterbacks that we feel really comfortable with in Mason Rudolph and Will Howard, hopefully add another guy to the mix. But just stay patient. No team was built on Day 1 of the draft.”
On Day 2, the Steelers added Allar. If Rodgers does indeed return, either Rudolph or Howard will get the heave-ho.
It’s fair to wonder whether the Allar pick represents an acknowledgement that Rodgers may not return. Beyond that, it undermines the idea that new coach Mike McCarthy loves Howard, a sixth-round pick from a year ago. If that was the case, the Steelers would have used pick No. 76 on another position, waiting to get a quarterback later in the draft or signing an undrafted player or adding one of the various remaining free agents.
Still, the dynamics are very different than they were a week ago. Last Saturday, the sense was that Rodgers would be letting the Steelers know his plans before the draft — possibly with Rodgers showing up and waving a Terrible Towel and winning over the various fans who wonder why the Steelers keep waiting around for a free agent in whom no other NFL franchise has expressed interest during the current offseason.
The Steelers have added another quarterback to their roster. No, his name isn’t Aaron Rodgers.
Pittsburgh drafted Penn State’s Drew Allar in the third round, using the 76th overall pick on him. It’s the draft choice the Steelers acquired from the Cowboys in the George Pickens trade a year ago.
Allar joins Mason Rudolph and Will Howard in the quarterbacks room as the Steelers await word on Rodgers about his future.
Allar’s family has Browns’ season tickets, so they will have to change their allegiance.
He played only six games in 2025, missing the second half of the season with a broken left ankle that required surgery. He completed 64.8 percent of his passes for 1,100 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions last season.
In his career, Allar made 35 starts and completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 7,402 yards with 61 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
The Colts were set to make their first pick of the 2026 draft at No. 47 overall. But that’s not going to be the case.
Pittsburgh has traded up to No. 47 and has selected receiver Germie Bernard out of Alabama.
Bernard spent one season at Michigan State, one season at Washington, and two seasons with Alabama in his collegiate career. In 2025, he caught 64 passes for 862 yards with seven touchdowns. He led the team in receptions in 2024 and 2025.
So, after Pittsburgh’s mix-up with Makai Lemon on Thursday night, the Steelers have picked up a young receiver.
The Steelers sent No. 53, No. 135, and No. 237 to the Colts in exchange for No. 47 and No. 249.
Indianapolis’ first pick in 2026 now set for No. 53.
On Thursday night, the Steelers had USC receiver Makai Lemon on the phone before the Steelers were on the clock. It could put them on the radar screen of 345 Park Avenue.
Jake Rosenberg, long-time Eagles executive who left the organization two years ago, has made this observation on Twitter: “Clubs that are not ‘on the clock’ may have discussions with the representative of one or more draft-eligible players not yet selected (or discussion with the players themselves) regarding the player’s interest in playing in the League, playing with a particular club or type of club, the player’s health, or other such non-financial matters, so long as these discussions do not interfere with discussions between a player and the club that is ‘on the clock.’”
A source currently working for a team not involved in the situation tells PFT that this is indeed the rule.
NFL Network televised the video of Lemon talking to the Steelers while the Eagles were trying to reach him. Beyond making the Steelers look foolish, the video may get the Steelers in hot water.
It’s probably not something the league will care about. With the first round trimmed to eight minutes, there will be periodic complications. Ultimately, it didn’t keep the Eagles from getting Lemon. And the embarrassment may be punishment enough for the team that is hosting the draft.
The NFL draft as a traveling reality show keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Commissioner Roger Goodell announced last night that 320,000 attended the first round of the draft in Pittsburgh. The prior record was set two years ago in Detroit, with 275,000.
Yes, there are some irregularities when it comes to counting heads. Every time someone exits and re-enters the perimeter of the draft, another “one” gets added to the total.
In Pittsburgh, a sprawling footprint had fans gathered at the stage, inside Acrisure Stadium, and at Point State Park. It was a visually large and impressive showing.
Whatever the specific numbers, and regardless of any creative accounting that could skew toward “alternative facts,” the NFL proves time and again that, wherever the draft goes, football fans will follow.
It helps to get lucky with the weather. The skies can turn turbulent in the spring. One of these years, Mother Nature won’t cooperate with Father Football.
They’ll worry about that until it happens. For now, the goal is about making the numbers as big as they can be, if only to keep stirring the pot to get more and more and more people to show up for the reality show that could be conducted via group text.
As the Steelers moved quickly with the truncated window to make their first pick in the 2026 draft, they didn’t know the guy they wanted was already gone.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the Steelers thought receiver Makai Lemon would be available at No. 21. They didn’t know the Eagles had moved up to No. 20 with the Cowboys to snatch Lemon.
Rapoport reports that the Steelers called Lemon without realizing the Eagles had moved up. The Eagles weren’t able to reach Lemon because he was on the phone with the Steelers.
New Steelers coach Mike McCarthy can thank one of his former teams for giving the Lemon pick to a division rival. Without the trade down, the Cowboys wouldn’t have taken Lemon. The trade let it happen.
With questions lingering regarding tackle Broderick Jones’s neck injury, the Steelers needed help at the position.
They got it.
The team hosting the draft selected Arizona State Max Iheanachor at No. 21.
No tackles were taken in the first eight picks. Since then, seven had been selected.
It’s not a sexy pick for the Steelers, but it’s the kind of meat-and-potatoes move that will be much needed to improve the offense. Especially since, overall, the talent cupboard may be more bare than anyone realizes.
Obviously, the Steelers may need to be thinking about quarterback at some point. One thing we won’t know is whether they would have taken Ty Simpson, if he’d still be on the board.
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.
