Behind the Steel Curtain
There is under a month until the Pittsburgh Steelers report to training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. And with free agency and the offseason program behind us, I’ll take an early swing at predicting the Steelers’ 53-man roster come Week 1 of the 2026 season.
It’s pretty clear that the Steelers want Will Howard to win the QB2 job. He was given QB2 reps during the offseason program, and Pittsburgh would love if he shows he can be the primary backup to Aaron Rodgers in 2026. If it’s close, it’ll be a tie goes to the runner situation where the Steelers will opt to keep Howard, and in turn, flip Rudolph in a trade that involves a pick swap i.e. sending Rudolph and a sixth-round pick in exchange for a fifth-round pick. Then again, Kenny Pickett was traded for a fourth-round pick last offseason on two occasions, so if they can get that for Rudolph, they’d do it in a heartbeat.
Dowdle and Warren are the undisputed top two backs, but it gets interesting when you try to fill the rest of the room. Kaleb Johnson had just 28 carries for 69 yards as a rookie and he doesn’t play special teams. Travis Homer is a special teams stud, and that will lead to him securing a roster spot. That leaves a battle between Johnson and Eli Heidenreich, which Heidenreich wins. He’s more versatile and he’ll provide Pittsburgh with another special teams hand. If the Steelers could get a Day Three pick for Johnson, that would be a win.
As I pointed out previously, I fully expect the Steelers to add veteran competition at wide receiver for what will be one open spot. Five slots at receiver are safe: Metcalf, Pittman, Bernard, Skowronek, and Wetjen, with the latter two taking up the WR5 and WR6 spot, respectively. Skowronek is there to play special teams and Wetjen will purely be a returner. Thus, the WR4 spot will come down to a competition between Roman Wilson and an outside addition, which I’ll pick to be Noah Brown. Curtis Samuel is another name that could be intriguing, but his injury history is a red flag. Brown’s the safer choice, and I’ll take a swing and say he comes in and wins the WR4 job over Wilson, who then gets shipped to the Los Angeles Chargers to reunite with Jim Harbaugh.
This is one of the easier positions to sniff out. Freiermuth and Washington will be the No. 1 and No. 2 tight end, respectively, with Nowakowski playing the hybrid fullback/tight end roll.
Offensive line (9): Troy Fautanu, Mason McCormick, Zach Frazier, Spencer Anderson, Max Iheanachor, Dylan Cook, Broderick Jones, Gennings Dunker, Brock Hoffman...
