Steelers Standard (Pittsburgh Steelers) · SNR

HR 1: Steelers Draft Needs, All-time Steelers Draft Day Moves

April 9, 2026·50 min·4 clips

In two weeks, 700,000 people could flood Pittsburgh as the NFL Draft kicks off outside Acrisure Stadium.

Fourteen days out, Pittsburgh is already in draft-week mode. Ed Troop and Brian Bacco open with the 2026 NFL Draft closing in on Accushore Stadium, the stage taking shape, and Steelers talk filling the week. Then the roster talk gets sharper. Safety is the spot that keeps pulling them back, mostly because last year's group sounds short on the kind of speed that scares offenses out of easy deep shots. Toughness is not the issue. Range is. They split the difference between a box safety who can hit and a true deep-field player the defense can trust, especially once Jacquan Brisker and Deshaun Elliott come up as physical options who may be better closer to the line. If Pittsburgh uses number 21 on a safety, the player has to cover ground, clean up mistakes, and let the rest of the secondary stay in its lane. Dylan Thieman is the name that makes the idea feel live, but not simple. Some talk has the Oregon safety near Pittsburgh's range, while some pushes him into the top 15. Omar Khan is sitting at the middle of that guesswork. The appeal is not safety for safety's sake. It is a player with enough all-around game to keep the Steelers aggressive without making the coverage feel stretched. The tone stays loose, which helps. Nobody treats the pick like it is already written. They work through it like a probability check. The hour also reaches back to draft-day history, with the Cowboys taking Taco Charlton and the Packers trading out before taking Kevin King instead. Pittsburgh saw something others did not. That memory gives the current safety debate some bite, because the smartest draft move often looks obvious only later. Ray Fittipaldo is up next. This first hour gets the mock draft conversation ready by mixing need, value, and Steelers history into one very Pittsburgh argument.

As heard by us

A Steelers draft debate centered on roster needs, safety options, and draft-day memory.

With the draft just two weeks away and Pittsburgh hosting the event, Steelers Standard zeroes in on what the roster still lacks and whether safety is the spot to address.

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Why you'd press play

Steelers draft talk that weighs the safety debate and whether a first-round swing makes sense.

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