PITTSBURGH —The Pittsburgh Steelers are almost certainly going to draft a wide receiver in the 2026 NFL Draft, and maybe two or three by the time they’re done with their current tranche of 12 selections by the end of the draft on Saturday.
“Historically, when you talk about slot receiver, the first thing you think about is the guy can run an option route. Really what slot receivers were known for. In my experience, I’ve always looked for the guy who was athletic enough and had the ability to win outside,” Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy said during his pre-draft press conference on Monday. “Outside of the numbers, we call it the Autobahn. The ability to win out there, and then transfer that size and skillset inside, I think there’s a huge benefit to that because he’s capable to do more and frankly be a good option receiver because that’s a big part of playing in the No. 2 and 3 spot. But I just never, ever viewed having a smaller receiver just to run slot plays. I don’t like that way to play that, and I don’t play that way, frankly, because our offensive system is based on making the quarterback successful and if you have to run concepts in the pass game dictated on this receiver can do this and this receiver can do that, then you don’t have the ability to move them around as much. So when you can move players around, now you can challenge the defense, and create more matchups, and keep things simpler for the quarterback.”
The Steelers brought in a slew of receivers for pre-draft visits — Jeff Caldwell of Cincinnati , Kendrick Law of Kentucky , Denzel Boston of Washington , Skyler Bell of UConn , Makai Lemon of USC and Germie Bernard of Alabama .
The Steelers traded for wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. this offseason, giving DK Metcalf a No. 2 wideout to work with. McCarthy raved about Metcalf when speaking with reporters on Tuesday.
“I don’t really like to get into comparables because I’ve been so blessed to work with so many great players, but also just about DK, his skill set is top-notch,” McCarthy said. “When you can take slants and different vertical routes to the house, he’s so powerful and he’s so strong, so just trying to get to know his strengths and how we can utilize him.
“We’ll try to build a route menu for him particularly, not different than all of the conversations we’ve had about receivers because I think it’s critical that they play the 1 position, the 2 position, or the 3 position. So, we’ll continue to look at that for DK.”
Alan Saunders provided reporting from Pittsburgh.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Mike McCarthy Has One Must for Drafting a WR
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