2026 Team Previews: Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers 2026 Preview
All ADP data is courtesy of Fantasy Pros.
** = target in drafts at this ADP
Drafted Everywhere
Jaylen Warren, RB (ADP: 72, RB28): Warren was a player I was very excited about potentially exploring as a major breakout in 2026, but the Steelers’ moves this offseason have cooled that sentiment. With that said, I still think Warren is a supremely talented player, and he could be a big value at this price. Warren’s never been a bell cow in the NFL, but last season was his first trip past 200 carries and he did well, putting up 958 yards and six rushing touchdowns. Overall, he turned in nearly 1,300 total yards, with eight total touchdowns, and he put up over 300 receiving yards for the third straight season. The biggest selling point for Warren is how much of a threat he is as a pass catcher, but he actually had to play a different role in 2025. Rookie Kaleb Johnson failed to crack the rotation and assume the role Najee Harris left, which necessitated Warren filling that gap and Kenneth Gainwell assuming the job that Warren previously held. Gainwell has moved on to Tampa Bay now, and even though the Steelers’ offensive environment has changed, that’s still 85 targets that have been vacated. The Steelers signed Rico Dowdle this offseason, signaling that Dowdle might be here to handle the grunt work, and Warren can revert to a target-happy role in which he can be even more productive for fantasy.
Warren remains efficient, having averaged 4.3 yards or more per carry in every season, and when needed, he’s been a volume receiver as well. His 61 receptions in 2023 are his career-high, and while those have settled into the high 30s and low 40s now, his efficiency on those receptions has risen. Last season, the Steelers receiver room was a complete mess so the target share is unlikely to be as heavily concentrated toward the RBs in 2026. But Warren is efficient, capable of maintaining that efficiency on the ground or through the air, and headed for a less taxing type of workload that can keep him fresher. I’m expecting a lot of opportunity and yardage for Warren, and if he can have a TD spike we’re looking at a potentially massive season. There’s whiffs of Austin Ekeler in the air in Pittsburgh.
DK Metcalf, WR (ADP: 86, WR37): When the Steelers parted ways with George Pickens and signed DK Metcalf, I wrote “I don’t think Metcalf is versatile enough to be the total focal point of a healthy passing game, but fantasy wise he will be peppered with targets and he should be back to double-digit touchdowns.” Unfortunately for the Steelers, I was only right about Metcalf not being versatile enough to be the focal point of a healthy passing game. Metcalf had some big spike weeks, but his 850 yards was the lowest of his career, his 59 receptions was the second-lowest and worst mark since a 58-reception rookie season, and it was the first time in his career that he fell below 100 targets.
Even at his advanced age, Aaron Rodgers can run a functional offense in his sleep. But without quality receivers, Metcalf was exposed for his limitations, and he wound up with only one game with more than five receptions. He was held to 55 yards or fewer in 11 of his 15 games, and three or fewer catches seven times. It was a no good, very bad season for a player who was a team’s nominal WR1, but did not put up the corresponding numbers. Rodgers is now a year older, which isn’t great, but the Steelers did make some additions to the receiver room that should help Metcalf thrive in his X receiver role. Entering his age-29 season, I believe Metcalf’s days as a sneaky low-end WR1 are over. I do believe he can still make a pretty big fantasy impact, and might even be a WR2 when the 2026 season is all said and done, making this ADP just fine. It’s not incredible, it’s not terrible, it’s a reasonable place to take a player with a strong track record and some upside.
Rico Dowdle, RB (ADP: 84, RB32): Pittsburgh will be Dowdle’s third team in as many seasons, which is a little weird because he’s been a 1,000-yard rusher in the last two stops. Dowdle’s hit 1,300 total yards in back-to-back seasons, and comes into another plus situation in theory; Jaylen Warren is in place and is likely to lead the backfield in touches, but he’s not ideally built for traditional bell cow work. Enter Dowdle, who is a hard charger, has proven he can handle big workloads (235 and 236 carries, respectively, the last two seasons) and due to pass blocking issues is a sure bet to be off the field on passing downs. Dowdle is clearly here to absorb wear and tear that Warren was enduring in 2026, and he may be here to serve as a goal line hammer as well. That last bit could hurt Warren, but only time will tell.
I’m not viewing Dowdle as a major breakout candidate in Pittsburgh, but he should be a pretty useful player on a lot of rosters.
Interesting Players
**Michael Pittman Jr., WR (ADP: 102, WR43): Part of the fear I, and many others, had for DK Metcalf in Pittsburgh was his penchant for not running the crispiest routes and not being in perfect position all the time. It worked very well with Russell Wilson and Geno Smith in Seattle, but precision is Rodgers’ thing. That seemed like an imperfect fit, and it bore out that way, with Metcalf struggling to draw his usual target share despite a void where useful pass catchers should’ve been in 2025. Pittman solves this problem for the Steelers, and I believe he’s incredibly undervalued this year.
Injuries have slowed Pittman at times in his career, and he’s never had the monster season that his underlying numbers have told us is lurking. I honestly believe that it might be coming in 2026. Pittman’s credibly played out of every conceivable alignment for the Colts in his career, but is best suited toggling between the flanker and slot. That’s precisely where he’ll be just about all the time for the Steelers, and unlike Metcalf, being right were he’s supposed to be is Pittman’s calling card. He eclipsed 70% vs. man last year (64th percentile) and remained above-average vs. zone (80.5%, 66th percentile) while cracking press coverage with the best of them. Now, Pittman was once a full-field threat and the deep stuff – nines (50% success), corners (42.9%) – were dreadful in 2025. That’s a big part of why fantasy managers may be hopping off this 29-year-old’s bandwagon. But the Steelers have Metcalf for that stuff, and Pittman was elite on everything else.
He was above 80% on digs and curls, over 90% on slants, and at 87% when operating in the flats. Rodgers is an ancient QB at this point, and he’s often unloading the ball quickly; last season those passes were dump offs to Kenny Gainwell, but now he has a trusty WR to turn those into bigger plays. Pittman is not the threat to be a fantasy WR1 like I believed once upon a time, but I’d be very surprised if he isn’t a locked in WR3 at worst, and a WR2 at best. There’s major, major value here with this depressed ADP.
Deep Cuts
Aaron Rodgers, QB (ADP: 176, QB28): It’s been a long time since Rodgers was a viable every-week starting fantasy QB, and that hasn’t changed in 2026. It’ll help him that Mike McCarthy is back in charge of a Rodgers-led offense, but this is a player who can put up 3,300-3,500 yards and 25ish touchdowns with his eyes closed. I’d expect those numbers to tick up a little bit with Pittman joining the team, but ultimately that’s around where he’s going to be with no rushing production to speak of. That’s a streaming QB, not a starting one. I surely believe he’ll finish better than QB28, but this ADP isn’t reflective of where he’ll finish, but rather what the community collectively thinks about his chances of being elite. It’s close to zero from a fantasy perspective.
Pat Freiermuth, TE (ADP: 193, TE30): Freiermuth has the ability to be a fringe-relevant TE in fantasy. He’s had three seasons with 60+ catches, which ain’t nothing for a TE, and he’s had two seven-touchdown campaigns. He also only managed 41 receptions, 486 yards and four touchdowns in 2025 with Rodgers at the helm and a WR room devoid of talent beyond Metcalf. If it didn’t happen last year, I’m skeptical it ever will. If he pops early, Freiermuth becomes an interesting spot start in the right matchups but nothing more beyond that.
Germie Bernard, WR, (ADP: 203, WR78): Bernard has put together two straight productive seasons at Alabama, where the offensive environment has changed quite a bit since their recent heyday. Putting up 862 yards and seven touchdowns on 64 receptions was nothing to sneeze at last year and the Steelers agreed, drafting him with a second round pick. Bernard’s not likely to set the world on fire; his QB is old, and he’s got entrenched veterans ahead of him on the depth chart. But he’s a player who can really work the intermediate level of the field, showed at Alabama that he’s comfortable lining up from multiple spots, and has a clear path to the WR3 spot on this team with Pittman’s injury risk offering a reasonable chance at ascending to WR2. He wouldn’t be a terrible gamble this late in drafts at all.
Darnell Washington, TE (ADP: 244, TE36): Washington is a very limited player, but at 6’7, 264 lbs. he has real potential to be an absolute red zone animal. We’ve seen players like Juwan Johnson carve out very relevant fantasy roles by being primarily end zone options, and even though Washington hasn’t been that yet, the potential is there. Don’t draft him, but if he’s peppered early in the season with those kinds of looks, pounce.
Roman Wilson, WR (ADP:310, WR130): Wilson needed to make his presence felt in 2025 with such a weak depth chart, and he only mustered 12 receptions, 166 yards and two touchdowns. I wouldn’t completely write off a talented guy who was taken in the third round just two years ago, but there’s no interest fantasy-wise here. Signing Pittman and drafting Bernard buries Wilson, and now a lot needs to go right for him to even be on the field consistently.
Kaleb Johnson, RB (ADP: 270, RB88): Johnson was a player I whiffed on badly last season. I expected him to walk right into Najee Harris’ role, and instead he only earned 28 rushing attempts for the entire season. It was brutal, and now with Rico Dowdle ahead of him, the only path to playing time is injury.