The manner in which Max Iheanachor wound up in Pittsburgh isn’t unique.
At least not to him.
The massive offensive tackle was discovered by the D-I college football world while he was attending East Los Angeles College. Fresno State offensive line coach Saga Tuitele went there to check out a different JUCO offensive tackle, but left with much more intrigue about the size and raw talent of Iheanachor.
“The tackle I was looking at was better at football. But Max had more ceiling. I said, ‘I know I came in for this guy, but I want the other guy,’ ” Tuitele said.
When Tuitele eventually moved to Arizona State, he wanted Iheanachor to come with him. Four years later, Iheanachor became the 21st pick in the NFL Draft. Tuesday, he found himself in Pittsburgh holding a Steelers jersey, less than 24 hours after his selection.
Max Iheanachor introduced in Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/6jwjsPCVCY
— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) April 24, 2026
“I knew it was going to be hard,” Iheanachor said of making the NFL. “The vision was there, but I knew it was going to be hard. Just try to get better every day. Put your head down and work, not try to look too far ahead and predict stuff. Just work every day. That was my whole motive.”
Coincidentally, Iheanachor wound up in Pittsburgh via a path similar to the one that brought him to Tempe. The Steelers were initially looking at someone else.
Not only were they looking at him, but they were talking to him on the phone.
It was USC wide receiver Makai Lemon. The Steelers were informing him of their plans to select him at pick No. 21 Thursday night, only to have the Philadelphia Eagles swoop in and select Lemon at No. 20 after a trade with the Dallas Cowboys.
The moment that Makai Lemon found out the Eagles were trading up to get him at No. 20 while he was the on the phone with the Steelers, who were planning to take him at No. 21. pic.twitter.com/Iqv7wfzbtu
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 24, 2026
“Everything happens for a reason,” Iheanachor said about the similarity between the two events. “It’s really just all God’s plan. That’s how (Tuitele) met me, and I can’t be mad at that.”
Iheanachor doesn’t recall anything he did on that day at practice that he thought would resonate with Tuitele.
“Honestly, we never really know when coaches come into practice. They kind of just show up and watch. Just practiced hard like I always do,” Iheanachor said. “He liked that.”
Ellwood City’s Doug Tammaro is the ASU senior associate athletic director of media relations. He also writes for SunDevils.com and thinks Iheanachor can handle the extra scrutiny that may come with the spotlight of how his selection transpired.
“I don’t think that’s going to bother him at all,” Tammaro said. “He’s not the kind of kid who is going to say this is going to spur me or motivate me. I don’t think it is going to sit there and overwhelm him. I just think he is going to be a fantastic pro.”
An unconventional course is nothing new to Iheanachor. A basketball and soccer player growing up, Iheanachor moved with his family to America from Nigeria when he was 13. He was unfamiliar with football.
“Our football, it was called football, but it was soccer back home,” Iheanachor said. “I watched a lot of American movies. We got to see snow for the first time in Atlanta. That’s where we lived for six months. I remember my little brother and me went outside, trying to catch it.”
As far as on-field performance, Tuitele described how Iheanachor went from a 17-year-old JUCO freshman who had never played the game to an NFL first-rounder in just five years.
“He’s got a natural feel for football and learning football. Even for a young man who didn’t have football in his background, he learned very easily,” Tuitele said. “We didn’t have to slow it down. We just had to teach him everything, and he was a sponge. He wanted to learn.”
Tuitele thinks that quick-learning versatility could come in handy in Pittsburgh. Iheanachor was a right tackle with the Sun Devils. That’s where Troy Fautanu plays. If the Steelers are reluctant to move Fautanu, at 6-foot-6, 321 pounds, Tuitele believes Iheanachor can play the left side or drop inside to left guard.
“Four years isn’t a lot of football. But that can be a good thing because you don’t have a lot of bad habits. It’s not like he has been playing right tackle for eight or nine years,” Tuitele said. “He can do it. He can play both. If they need him to move inside, he is big and strong and violent enough to go inside.”
Currently, the left side of the Steelers’ offensive line is an injured Broderick Jones and Dylan Cook at tackle. Spencer Anderson and Brock Hoffman appear to be in a battle for the left guard spot.
So the more natural path appears to be for Iheanachor to find a home on the left side rather than displacing Fautanu.
But if his career — and life — so far are any indication, taking a different route to success has never been a problem.