Steelers use 7 of 10 draft picks on offense as they wait for Rodgers to decide on return

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Steelers use 7 of 10 draft picks on offense as they wait for Rodgers to decide on return

2026-04-26 10:22 Last Updated At：10:41

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers still don’t know if quarterback Aaron Rodgers will return for his 22nd season in 2026.

If the 42-year-old decides to play, the four-time MVP will lead a team filled with fresh faces on offense. Pittsburgh used seven of its 10 picks in the NFL draft on that side of the ball, starting with offensive tackle Max Iheanachor in the first round and ending it with Navy wide receiver/running back (and Pittsburgh native) Eli Heidenreich in the seventh.

“That’s how the draft sorted itself out,” general manager Omar Khan said. “We trusted our board and trusted our process.”

It’s the first time since 1976 that the Steelers drafted six offensive players among their first seven picks.

In addition to Iheanachor and Heidenreich, Pittsburgh chose Iowa guard Gennings Dunker, Alabama wide receiver Germie Bernard and Penn State quarterback Drew Allar.

“It was very refreshing to see need hit value,” first-year Steelers coach Mike McCarthy said.

The 6-foot-5, 228-pound Allar was once projected as a first-round pick, but has things he needs to clean up as he transitions to the NFL.

Allar helped Penn State to a College Football Playoff berth in 2024, but the Nittany Lions struggled against higher-caliber competition during his career, going 0-6 against Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon and Notre Dame.

Allar enters a quarterback room that already includes Ohio State’s Will Howard, taken in the sixth round last year. Howard suffered a hand injury in training camp and spent the first two months of the season on injured reserve.

The addition of Allar represents Pittsburgh's latest attempt to find a young quarterback it hopes can become a franchise cornerstone, something it has lacked since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement in 2022. Pittsburgh swung and missed on Kenny Pickett four years ago, while Howard remains a work in progress.

McCarthy said the addition of Allar won’t have any impact on the team’s willingness to bring back Rodgers, who guided the Steelers to the AFC North title in his first year with Pittsburgh.

“It’s about training the room together,” McCarthy said. “It’s great to have two really young guys that I’m extremely excited about.”

The Steelers hope Bernard can be a versatile complement to veterans DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr.

The Steelers traded up to pick Bernard, Alabama's leading receiver in each of the last two seasons. He has inside-outside position flexibility that McCarthy covets, and he caught 114 passes for 1,656 yards and nine touchdowns at Alabama with just three drops.

The Steelers acquired Pittman in March to play alongside Metcalf, who faced frequent double-teams last season.

The Steelers addressed their return game in the fourth round when they picked Iowa wide receiver Kaden Wetjen.

Pittsburgh last scored a touchdown on a kickoff return on Dec. 31, 2017, against Cleveland. The Steelers’ last punt return for a score came against the New York Giants on Oct. 28, 2024.

Wetjen, an All-America returner as a senior, led the nation in punt return average. He has six career return touchdowns, including three punts and a kickoff last season.

This is the second straight year the Steelers drafted a pair of Iowa players. There are seven former Iowa players on the roster.

With the Steel City hosting the draft, the Steelers used their final pick to give Heidenreich an unexpected homecoming.

A native of Pittsburgh's Mount Lebanon neighborhood, Heindenreich called the moment he walked from the green room in full Navy uniform onto the draft stage the greatest moment of his life.

“This is the greatest city in the world with the greatest people in the world,” he said. “I couldn’t be any happier.”

Heidenreich, who set the Navy record for receiving yards, hugged NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and former Steelers safety Will Allen before promising to help the Steelers win a seventh Super Bowl.

The Steelers also picked Georgia cornerback Daylen Everette (third round), Indiana tight end Riley Nowakowski (fifth), Notre Dame defensive tackle Gabe Rubio (sixth) and Oklahoma safety Robert Spears-Jennings (seventh).

The players will report for rookie camp early next month before Pittsburgh's veterans join for organized team activities later in May.

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Trump unharmed after security incident at White House correspondents' dinner

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was uninjured and other top leaders of the United States were evacuated from an annual dinner of White House correspondents on Saturday night after a shooting incident outside the ballroom.

One law enforcement official said a gunman had opened fire. A law enforcement officer was shot in the bullet-resistant vest but is expected to be OK, one officer told The Associated Press.

The FBI said a suspect was in custody but had no details.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the banquet hall at the Washington Hilton as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Audible gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realized something was happening. Hundreds of journalists got on phones to call in information.

“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. He fell briefly — he apparently tripped — and was helped up by Secret Service agents. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.

Authorities said the incident occurred outside the subterranean ballroom where Trump and other guests were seated. After an initial attempt to resume, the event was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.

“We will do this again,” said Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents' Association. Shortly afterward, staff began breaking down table settings and the presidential lectern.

All officials protected by the Secret Service were evacuated. Those in attendance included Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — and many other leaders of the Trump administration.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he and his wife, Kelly, who both attended the event, were “praying for our country tonight.” The House Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, said “The violence and chaos in America must end."

Some in the crowd reported hearing what they believed to be five to eight shots fired. The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump’s remarks — was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not immediately reenter. Security outside was also extremely tight.

Republican Rep. MIke Lawler of New York, a guest at the dinner, said he heard a pop and “we didn’t know what the hell it was. And then you heard all sorts of things clatter.” Lawler said he gets “death threats often” and said “I think we live in a climate where everybody recognizes its a problem, but I don’t think people fully appreciate how much of a problem it really is.”

The event had initially appeared set to resume after the disorder. Servers refolded napkins and refilled water glasses in preparation for Trump’s return. Another worker prepared the president’s teleprompter for the remarks he was scheduled to make.

Generally, the Hilton hotel, where the dinner has taken place for years, remains open to regular guests during the correspondents’ dinner, and security has typically been focused on the ballroom and rather than the hotel at large, with little screening for people not entering the dinner itself. In past years, that has created openings for disruptions in the lobby and other public spaces, including protests in which security moved to remove guests who unfurled banners or staged demonstrations.

Trump’s attendance at Saturday’s annual dinner in Washington for his first time as president is putting his administration’s often-contentious relationship with the press on full public display.

Trump arrived to an event where the leaders of a nation at war mingled with celebrities, journalists and even a puppet — Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — in a dinner that typically generates debate about whether the relationship between journalists and their sources should include socializing together and putting aside sometimes adversarial relationships.

Trump was being watched closely at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration. Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.

The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.

Trump entered the banquet hall of the Washington Hilton to the strains of “Hail to the Chief” and greeted prominent journalists on the dais, also pausing to laud White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt with a cheerful pointing of his finger.

Past dinners have also featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group opted to hire mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainment.

Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration’s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump’s second term.

On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association “to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”

Jiang said the organization was fighting for all different forms of the press that have a line in to the American people. “I don’t think people realize how closely we are working with the White House,” she said on C-SPAN before the dinner convened. “The relationship is important. It can be complicated. It can be intense. But it is robust.”

Welcoming guests, Jiang alluded to the contentious relationship in thanking Leavitt “for everything your team does to work with us every day, whether you like it or not.”

Veteran reporter Manu Raju of CNN, as he entered the Washington Hilton for the dinner, said it was not his role to express his opinion on Trump’s relationship with the press. “I’m not an activist,” he said. “My job is not to protest.”

A few dozen protesters stood across the hotel in the runup to the event. One was dressed in a prison uniform, wearing a Hegseth mask and red gloves. Another carried a sign saying, “Journalism is dead.”

AP journalists Michael Balsamo, Zeke Miller and Anna Johnson contributed to this report. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.