If Steelers rookie first-round pick Max Iheanachor wins a starting job out of the gate, it doesn’t seem Dylan Cook would be surprised. Ostensibly, the two are competing to be Pittsburgh’s right tackle. Previously occupied by Broderick Jones, and then Troy Fautanu, the position is currently open. Fautanu is now at left tackle, and Jones is rehabbing a neck injury.
Cook himself is already a success story, a former college free agent who made his NFL debut past year. Following Jones’ injury at left tackle last season, he started at the end of the year and impressed the coaches. But not enough to prevent them from drafting Max Iheanachor in the first round.
And even Cook can see that what Iheanachor may lack in experience, he makes up for in talent. The rookie has the summer to prove to the coaching staff that he is ready closer to the “sooner” in the inevitable “sooner or later”.
“He’s primed. He’s ready”, Cook said of Iheanachor, via the Steelers’ website. “There are a couple of things he can work on, but he’s a quick learner and he’s eager to learn. He’s going to be a really good player”. He added, “I don’t know his full story, but from what I’ve heard, he’s only been playing football for a few years,” Cook said. “That’s crazy. Good for him”.
Max Iheanachor grew up in Nigeria, but his family moved to the US. He picked up football late, but he has 32 career starts in college. From a collegiate standpoint, he is more experienced than Broderick Jones was, though Jones began playing football much earlier.
The Steelers have some experience drafting Nigerian-born tackles who started late in football. Eight years before drafting Iheanachor, they took Chukwuma Okorafor in the third round. Okorafor had even more college starting experience, but took a couple years to cement himself as a starter. Eventually, Broderick Jones supplanted him in the starting lineup midway through the 2023 season.
In Dylan Cook, the Steelers know they have at least one option at right tackle in which they can feel reasonably comfortable. Even better, of course, if Jones can re-enter the picture. But their best-case scenario would be Max Iheanachor proving in training camp he can start right away.
Throughout the spring, the Steelers had Spencer Anderson at right guard and Cook at right tackle with the starting offense. Iheanachor ran with the second-team unit, but the real evaluation doesn’t begin until training camp.
Based on what he’s already seen, Cook believes Iheanachor has what it takes. Perhaps he’s hoping, personally, that it takes a little longer, giving Cook an opportunity to begin the season as the starter. But even if he does, as with Jones and Okorafor, it would be a weekly question of when. You don’t draft a player in the first round to sit, especially not in today’s NFL.
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