{"id":608116,"date":"2026-04-26T21:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/608116\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:29:07","slug":"espn-analyst-highlights-pair-of-steelers-draft-picks-among-best-most-surprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/608116\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Analyst Highlights Pair Of Steelers Draft Picks Among Best, Most Surprising"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers were rather busy across the three days of the 2026 NFL Draft, selecting 10 players<\/a> while making three trades to maneuver around the board.<\/p>\n

In the end, it was an offense-heavy class under Steelers GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike McCarthy, signaling a slight organizational shift. Of the 10 selections, seven were on offense, including three pass-catching weapons.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Jordan Reid highlighted two of those seven selections in an ESPN.com piece Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

For Reid, the best value in the seventh round of the draft was the Steelers\u2019 selection of Navy RB\/WR Eli Heidenreich.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best moments of Day 3 was when the former Navy playmaker was selected at No. 230. He\u2019s a shifty runner who can make defenders miss in space,\u201d Reid writes of the Steelers\u2019 selection of Heidenreich<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019ll likely have to start out as a core special teams player as he tries to find his long-term role on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Heidenreich pick created an incredible moment on the North Shore<\/a>, putting a bow on a strong three days for the Steelers. After the debacle that was the Makai Lemon situation on the first night of the draft, Pittsburgh ended things with a bang, creating a moment for Heidenreich that will last forever.<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh native was invited to the draft by the NFL and got to experience walking through the tunnel to the stage, hugging NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and waving his Terrible Towel while soaking in the scene.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a great moment though. The Steelers got a bona-fide playmaker with great versatility. He\u2019s the most prolific pass-catcher in Navy history, and projects as a Danny Woodhead-type<\/a> for the Steelers. McCarthy even said they\u2019re going to open up the playbook for the hometown kid, too, so it\u2019s a fitting comp.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll have to carve out a role on special teams initially, but the Steelers got great value with the pick.<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s the selection of Penn State QB Drew Allar<\/a> in the third round at No. 76 overall, which has Reid a bit puzzled. He named it his most surprising selection of the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t so much the player-to-team fit but it was more the fact that Allar was picked as QB4 and went way before passers such as Cole Payton\u00a0and\u00a0Garrett Nussmeier,\u201d Reid writes.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Steelers were always going to take a quarterback in this draft<\/a>, giving McCarthy one to work with, even though he\u2019s high on second-year pro Will Howard, too. The Steelers have to keep taking swings on the QB position until they find a long-term answer, and Allar is a guy with great physical traits who is worth betting on.<\/p>\n

Reid must have had guys like North Dakota State\u2019s Cole Payton and LSU\u2019s Garrett Nussmeier ranked higher than Allar to be so surprised by the pick. What\u2019s more surprising is Payton lasting until the sixth round before the Philadelphia Eagles drafted him and that Nussmeier didn\u2019t hear his name called until the seventh round by the Kansas City Chiefs.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s more surprising than Allar, with his tools, going in the third round and as QB4 behind only Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson and Carson Beck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers were rather busy across the three days of the 2026 NFL Draft, selecting 10 players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[68019,40548,263923,352,264219,349,1321,99,3795],"class_list":{"0":"post-608116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-drew-allar","10":"tag-eli-heidenreich","11":"tag-espn","12":"tag-jordan-reid","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-trending"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}