It’s hard to evaluate the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first-round draft choice of Arizona State offensive tackle in the moment.
That’s because I’m not quite sure the moment is over yet.
Is it? I sure hope it’s not.
It feels like the Steelers are working backward on this one.
If they get to the spot that they intended to reach, there will be reason for applause. If they don’t, there will be reason for second-guessing.
Unfortunately, we won’t know that until the second round of the NFL Draft is over Friday night.
I like Iheanachor. The Steelers need help along the offensive line. He should provide that. Here at “Breakfast With Benz,” we’ve been pumping his tires since our pre-draft podcast series in early April, when former pro and college scout Matt Williamson had this to say about him.
“My man-crush is Max Iheanachor from Arizona State. I think he’s the ideal guy to start his career at guard, and then go to tackle,” Williamson said. “He’s only played football for a couple of years. He’s (a) basketball, soccer (player). Grew up in Africa. Didn’t even know what football was. Elite athlete. You think of soccer and basketball and think, ‘Oh, he’s probably a tall, skinny, finesse type dude.’ No, he’s a killer. He’s just learning how to kill as we speak. I think there’s a chance, if we have a conversation two years from now, he’s the best offensive lineman in this entire class.”
On Monday, I suggested that the Steelers should take a wide receiver at No. 21 if one of the six first-round worthy pass catchers was still available. Then I said they should trade back into the first round — or up high into the second — to get an offensive guard or tackle. Iheanachor’s name was the first one I mentioned.
As it turns out, three of those six receivers — Omar Cooper Jr. (Indiana), KC Concepcion (Texas A&M) and Denzel Boston (Washington) — were all available. Everything was lining up perfectly.
The problem is, the Steelers appear to have done things in the wrong order. They took Iheanachor — probably earlier than they needed to — and never got back into the first round. Then, Concepcion went to Cleveland at No. 26, and Cooper went to the New York Jets at No. 30.
Boston is still available. He is probably my least favorite of the six high-profile receivers, but he’s good enough.
In fact, if the Steelers had simply walked away with him as their only first-round pick, I would’ve been fine with that. They were never going to get Ohio State’s Carnell Tate (Tennessee) or Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson (New Orleans).
USC’s Makai Lemon would’ve been a steal at No. 21, but the Eagles stole him from the Steelers while the Steelers were literally talking to him on the phone to let him know he was going to be selected by Pittsburgh.
If the Steelers can manage to trade up high enough in the second round to get Boston, consider Round 1 and Round 2 wins. If they don’t, there is a pretty large dip in status until the next group of wide receivers — and the Steelers probably have to draft two of them before this selection process is over.
Iheanachor is intriguing. He’s a 6-foot-5, 321-pound piece of clay who just started playing football four years ago. He runs a 4.91 40-yard dash and doesn’t give up sacks.
Max Iheanachor did not play a single game of organized football until 2022.
Three years later, he did not give up a single sack in 2025, even when playing against the No. 2 overall NFL Pick, David Bailey.@CoachTuitele and @TyBarret did an outstanding job molding a talented… https://t.co/rw1rxDtPP8
— Chris Karpman (@ChrisKarpman) April 24, 2026
“He’s just getting started,” Steelers general manager Omar Khan said. “He hasn’t played a lot of football in his life. He’s only going to get better.”
I think he can play guard this year to replace Isaac Seumalo and then bounce outside if Dylan Cook can’t replace an injured Broderick Jones, if necessary. However, Steelers coach Mike McCarthy sees him as a tackle first.
“We’ll start him off at tackle. We want to work with him. I know our line coaches had a Zoom with him the other day, and it’s nice to see it come together in this evaluation,” McCarthy said.
Um, except it really didn’t “come together,” did it? They wanted Lemon. They were on the phone with him, and the Eagles swooped in.
Obviously, the Steelers were acknowledging their deficiencies at wide receiver. They only have four players at the position who caught passes back from last year’s team. One of them, Ben Skowronek, is primarily a special teams player.
There were eight trades in the first round. The Steelers have 12 picks. Yet, Khan couldn’t figure out a way to trade back into the first round to avoid letting the Browns take Concepcion or the Jets take Cooper?
I mean, the Eagles even traded with the hated division-rival Dallas Cowboys to get back into the first round. The Bills traded out of the first round entirely.
Another option would’ve been to just take Concepcion, Cooper or Boston there and try to slide back in for Iheanachor. Only one other tackle went after Iheanachor: Utah’s Caleb Lomu to New England at pick No. 28.
Are we sure Iheanachor would’ve been gone? ESPN.com listed him as the No. 41 overall pick. NFL.com had him at No. 39. So this was a reach by the Steelers. And if they liked Lemon as much as they apparently did, swing a deal with Detroit at 17?
They took Blake Miller, a tackle from Clemson. Work the phones. Use intel. No other tackles went between Detroit’s pick and Pittsburgh’s. The Lions could’ve dropped back and still gotten their man, or Iheanachor.
“We field calls. We all talk. There were some opportunities to move up. There are opportunities to move back. We just didn’t want to trade away from this player,” Khan said. “Just felt good.”
Obviously not as good as it would’ve felt if he had picked Lemon, though. Right?
Look, if the Steelers find a way to move up to the top of the second round so they can draft Boston, great. Then all of this criticism means a lot less.
However, if they are still sitting there at No. 53 on Friday night and the top eight or nine receivers are all gone, Khan will have missed an opportunity.
But, you know what they say: “When life takes your Lemon … drink something besides lemonade.”