Eighteen rookies are wearing black and gold in Latrobe: ten draft picks and eight undrafted free agents chasing 53 jobs. Four practices in, with contact starting Monday, here is our early projection for every one of them, built on the draft capital, the shape of each position room, and what the beat has actually seen.
One number frames everything: 92 players, 53 spots, 39 cuts. Rookies do not compete against the whole roster. They compete against the bottom of their own room, and some rooms are friendlier than others.
The locks
Max Iheanachor, OT, Round 1 (21st overall). First-round tackles do not get cut; they get thrown in. Steelers Depot already has him rotating with the starting units, and the swing-tackle math behind Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu makes him a week-one game-day active, not just a roster survivor.
Germie Bernard, WR, Round 2 (47th). The receiver room runs eleven deep for realistically six jobs, but second-round picks are exempt from that fight. The real question is bigger: Alan Saunders has the WR3 battle heating up, and Bernard is the draft-capital favorite to win it, which is a problem for the veteran we wrote about this week.
Drew Allar, QB, Round 3 (76th). The four-quarterback room keeps four. He got a two-minute drill rep Saturday, and the development clock is the franchise's most important background project. Lock.
Daylen Everette, CB, Round 3 (85th). The friendliest circumstance of any rookie: three defensive backs on PUP and PennLive reporting he keeps turning heads. He is not just making the team. He is auditioning for September snaps.
Gennings Dunker, G, Round 3 (96th). Iowa offensive linemen drafted in the top 100 make rosters, and a fifteen-man offensive line room still only carries nine or ten. He is inside that line comfortably.
In, barring surprise
Kaden Wetjen, WR, Round 4 (121st). A fourth-round receiver in a crowded room needs a second job, and the return game is the obvious one. Day-three picks with special teams roles survive cutdown; that is the entire logic of drafting them.
Riley Nowakowski, FB, Round 5 (169th). The tell is the roster itself: he is the only fullback on it. You do not spend a fifth-round pick on a position you plan to carry zero of. His presence is a scheme announcement.
Robert Spears-Jennings, S, Round 7 (224th). Seventh-rounders are usually bubble players, but Depot has him working with the starters four days in, and the safety room just told you what it thinks of its own depth by signing Rayshawn Jenkins. Special teams is his path, and he is on it.
Eli Heidenreich, RB, Round 7 (230th). The Navy product is listed in both the receiver and running back depth groups, Jaylen Warren is already talking him up, and positional flexibility is exactly the trait we said wins bubble spots. He makes it as a gadget and special teams piece.
The squeeze
Gabriel Rubio, DE, Round 6 (210th). Our one out call among the draftees. The defensive line room is twelve deep and headlined by five established players plus veteran depth; Rubio sits third on the nose tackle depth behind Keeanu Benton and Yahya Black. Sixth-round defensive linemen with numbers like that start seasons on the practice squad, and we project exactly that, with a recall the first time the line gets banged up.
The undrafted eight
Practice squad is the honest projection for most: Greg Crippen (C), Ahmari Harvey (CB), Kevin Jobity Jr. (DT), Lake McRee (TE), Levi Wentz (WR), Devan Boykin (CB), and Laith Marjan, the Kansas kicker in camp as insurance behind a 35-year-old Chris Boswell.
The exception worth watching is Tamon Lynum, the Pitt corner who never left town. The same PUP situation boosting Everette applies down the depth chart: if Joey Porter Jr., Donte Kent, or Jalen Ramsey is not ready for September, the last cornerback spot opens, and a local kid having a good August walks through it. He is our upset pick for the 53 if, and only if, the injury sheet cooperates.
The count
Nine of ten draft picks, Rubio to the practice squad, zero UDFAs on the initial 53 unless the secondary's health forces it, in which case Lynum. That is our card, filed before a single padded practice, which is exactly why we will grade it in public at cutdown.
What changes it: Rubio dominating once the pads are on, Marjan outkicking Boswell in a way nobody expects, or the Everette hype cooling against contact. The next four weeks are the evidence. The predictions are on the record now.
