The Pittsburgh Steelers have reached the halfway point of their 2026 season (or as close to the halfway point as you can get with 17 games on the calendar). As Mike McCarthy's team goes back to the drawing board during their Week 9 bye, we get a breather to reflect on the team's rookie class.
And so far, Steelers fans have plenty of reason to be encouraged.
Two of Pittsburgh's top five draft choices from the 2026 NFL Draft have yet to see the field for regular-season action. But several of them are already starting to make a name for themselves. My Steelers rookie stock report at the halfway point shows that this young draft class is trending up.
After a blazing hot start when he was thrust into action in Week 3, Max Iheanachor has cooled off in recent weeks. The first-round rookie has more sloppiness to his game than we would like to see, but the size, strength, and feet pop on tape.
Iheanachor's ceiling is evident in a collection of reps that he put together in the first half of his rookie season. He might not be trending up at the moment after his last three up-and-down performances, but there's more than enough reason to believe he'll be a lot better by the end of his rookie season.
It took a while for Germie Bernard to get the wheels turning, but once he was given a chance, he never looked back. The Alabama product has proven that he's a well-rounded receiver who's not afraid to throw his body into the mix as a blocker.
Bernard has already strung together 25 receptions over the past four games, and he's quietly gaining steam as an Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate. He should be a focal point of the Steelers' passing game after the bye week.
There's not much to be said here. Drew Allar is buried as the fourth quarterback on the roster, but we're also not going to fault him for it. We knew that would be the case since before the start of the season.
We obviously don't know how he's doing in the meeting rooms, but his stock won't truly have a chance to raise until he moves up the depth chart.
This is one of the biggest performers of all Steelers rookies. Daylen Everette hasn't been a full-time cornerback yet, but he's finding ways to get on the field and make plays. The Georgia product is a big, long CB who knows how to tackle.
Everette had his ups and downs in the first half of his rookie season, but the third-round pick was remarkable on just nine snaps against the Browns in Week 8. The 22-year-old flashes all of the tools to be a quality starter at the position, and the arrow is pointing up.
Like Allar, Gennings Dunker hasn't seen the football field yet this season. But unlike Allar, Dunker suffered an injury, which landed him on IR. While we don't know exactly where Dunker is right now, in terms of recovery, he's eligible to come back at any time if the Steelers open his practice window.
However, there's a chance Mike McCarthy just doesn't think he's ready to play yet, which may prolong his absence from the field. Even when he finds himself back on the roster, Dunker could be a game-day scratch. Brock Hoffman is the starting right guard now, and though this could be Dunker's job eventually, it's looking less likely that the Iowa product will get a shot to start this season.
Yeah, this one has some Steelers fans sour-and rightfully so. Despite being selected in the fourth round to help improve the return game, Wetjen has done very little in this regard, as the rookie ranks 38th of 45 qualifying players in kick return average (24.0 yards per return) and 15th of 16 qualifiers in punt return average (6.8 yards per return), per Pro Football Reference.
This is a great lesson on why teams shouldn't draft to fill positional needs over taking the best players available. There's still half a season for Wetjen to turn things around, but this has been the most discouraging rookie draft pick by the Steelers this year since Day 1, and he's not done anything to break that narrative.
Like Wetjen, Riley Nowakowski has been disappointing. But more than that, he's been an afterthought. Though Nowakowski serves a role on special teams, he's only seen the field for 32 snaps on offense, including two passing downs.
This probably won't change anytime soon, as the Steelers are loving their 12 personnel grouping-getting tight ends Darnell Washington and Pat Freiermuth on the field together. My expectations for Nowakoski were small, but he somehow hasn't even lived up to them.
Like Max Iheanachor, Rubio started off with an electrifying performance when he was finally asked to step in with an injury to 2025 first-round rookie Derrick Harmon. Unfortunately, the buzz around the big defensive lineman has really cooled off in recent weeks.
Rubio has been washed out of the play too often in recent weeks against the run, and he already doesn't offer much as a pass rusher. The sixth-round pick only has four games and 70 defensive snaps under his belt, but we want to see him look more like he did in his first NFL game in Week 5.
This might be the best overall rookie performer on the Steelers right now. And as a seventh-round pick among 10 rookie draft choices, that's saying a lot.
Robert Spears-Jennings first saw significant snaps on Thursday Night Football in Week 4 against the Cleveland Browns when he took over for the struggling Rayshawn Jenkins (who was later released). He's never looked back.
We already knew Spears-Jennings possessed size and speed, but he's been a remarkable tackler who can close on the football in a hurry. Shockingly, Spears-Jennings has earned a 78.7 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, which ranks 5th among all NFL rookies , regardless of position.
NFL teams only play one quarterback (most of the time), so as a running back, Eli Heidenreich doesn't have the same excuse as Drew Allar for why he's not seeing the field. Despite making the final 53-man roster, Heidenreich has only logged three offensive snaps all season, and those came back in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons.
Meanwhile, the Navy product has only 18 special teams snaps (which came in the first two weeks of the season), and he hasn't been able to earn a helmet since then. It's clear that the Steelers don't trust him right now, and if his stock were any lower, he'd be on the practice squad.
While not technically a draft pick by the Steelers (he went undrafted), Kevin Jobity Jr. is a rookie-and one who has found a way to see the field. Jobity didn't play his first NFL snap until Week 7 in Paris against the New Orleans Saints, but he's done a solid job on the defensive line rotation since veteran Sebastian Joseph-Day landed on IR.
Jobity even logged his first career sack on just 19 pass-rush snaps in Week 8. It's still hard to know what the Pittsburgh Steelers are getting in him, and he may return to being a healthy scratch when Harmon and Joseph-Day return. But his stock is currently up.
This article was originally published on www.stillcurtain.com as Steelers rookie stock report: Daylen Everette rising, Robert Spears-Jennings soaring .
