3 Overlooked Positions Steelers Must Improve Before the 2026 Season

The NFL Draft is less than 10 days away, and with each passing second, the obvious positions of need only loom larger. From wide receiver, offensive guard, defensive line, cornerback, or safety, they will understandably draw the most attention whenever the Pittsburgh Steelers are officially on the clock. Simply put, the team has to worry more about putting together a roster worthy of its next franchise quarterback than finding someone in the draft who could somehow pan out under center (spoiler: there are no legitimate solutions at the position worthy of a high draft pick).

The Steelers may not address every need through the draft, but at some point before Week 1 of the regular season kicks off, they'll need to. The following positions listed below affect several areas of performance, such as special teams, reliable depth in the case of injuries, and the middle part of the defense. #1: Punter Stop me if you've heard this one before: Pittsburgh has had a punting problem.

Even while Danny Smith was their special teams coordinator and beloved by many, his punters have consistently underwhelmed and ranked in the bottom half of net and gross averages league-wide, resulting in the Steelers going through as many as three punters since 2021 (Pressley Harvin III, Corliss Waitman, Cameron Johnston). The last time the Steelers were no worse than league-average in punting was when they had Jordan Berry. While not a flashy position, it matters too much when field position is at stake, and they are not winning in this particular aspect of the game.

Johnston was brought back this offseason, re-signing on a one-year deal, but he hasn't punted for an entire season pre-injury since playing for the Houston Texans. In terms of gross average rank, Waitman was 21st and 23rd over two seasons, and Harvin III was 30th, 28th, and 31st over three seasons, respectively. And Net averages, the results were not much better (if at all).