{"id":174505,"date":"2026-04-24T03:34:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174505\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:34:45","slug":"who-is-max-iheanachor-the-steelers-first-round-pick-in-the-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174505\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Max Iheanachor, the Steelers’ first-round pick in the 2026 NFL draft?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> selected Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor in the first round of the 2026 NFL draft<\/a>\u00a0in Pittsburgh on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He heard his name called at No. 21 overall. Here is what to know about the team’s newest offensive lineman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who is Max Iheanachor?<\/p>\n

Iheanachor was born in Nigeria and moved to California when he was 13 years old. He did not play football growing up, instead spending his time on the soccer field.<\/p>\n

His first time playing organized football was in 2021 for East Los Angeles College, a junior college.<\/p>\n

Where did Max Iheanachor go to college?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iheanachor enrolled at Arizona State in 2023 after spending two seasons at East Los Angeles College. He made six appearances in his first season on campus as a junior, but had a breakout 2024 senior season that turned him into an NFL draft prospect.<\/p>\n

In 2024, he started all 14 games at right tackle and was the team’s best offensive lineman. He followed 2024’s production and became one of the best offensive tackles in college football in 2025 as a redshirt senior. He earned 2025 All-Big 12 Second Team honors and was invited to the Senior Bowl.<\/p>\n

Why did the Steelers draft Max Iheanachor?<\/p>\n

The Steelers took Iheanachor to help address their offensive line depth, which was one of their draft needs<\/a>. Starting left tackle Broderick Jones suffered a neck injury last season and reportedly suffered a setback in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Jones’ status for the 2026 season is unclear, although he was seen participating in offseason programs this month. The pick, at a minimum, will help provide depth on the offensive line that lost starting guard Isaac Seumalo to the Arizona Cardinals in free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He is a great fit for us. … I think this is an excellent pick for us. He’ll be a great addition to our offensive line,” Steelers coach Mike McCarthy said on Thursday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Max Iheanachor NFL Combine numbers<\/p>\n

Iheanachor measured in at 6-foot-5, 321 pounds at the NFL Combine. He had 33 7\/8-inch arms, 9-inch hands, ran a 4.91-second 40-yard dash and notched a 30 1\/2-inch vertical jump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who did the Steelers draft in the first round last year?<\/p>\n

The Steelers selected Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon<\/a> in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft<\/a>. Pittsburgh drafted Harmon at No. 21 overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He played in 12 games as a rookie, tallying 27 tackles, five quarterback hits and 3 sacks.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor in the first round of the 2026 NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4849,3537,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-174505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl-draft","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}