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.
Steelers Clips
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.
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.
