The Pittsburgh Steelers hit the reset button on the franchise, moving off of stalwart head coach Mike Tomlin for fresh young blood… *checks notes*… Mike McCarthy. All to help the development of young upstart quarterback… Aaron Rodgers. Well, at least they drafted my favorite wide receiver in the draft away from my 49ers! Let’s take a look at the 2026 Pittsburgh Steelers’ fantasy football sleeper, undervalued, and overvalued players!
Sleeper: Germie Bernard, Wide Receiver (WR92, Pick 243 OVR)
Germie Bernard is a strong, versatile route runner who can take carries out of the backfield and block his rear end off. He’s a combination of pre-peak Deebo Samuel and current Jauan Jennings. Bernard can carry the ball, bullies his defenders, and handfights with the best of them to get the football. He’s also a great YAC guy who can both dole out and receive punishment.
Bernard already shows NFL-level body control and foot placement, adjusting to poorly thrown passes and toe-tapping sideline throws easily. His main issue is that he does not have good long speed, and will mostly end up working underneath. But he will put in work underneath, and a lot of it. He is going to be a bully possession receiver, despite his size, and he is going to make a team very happy.
Bernard likely starts the 2026 season third on the wide receiver depth chart, behind DK Metcalf and newcomer Michael Pittman Jr. in Pittsburgh, though there is a path to targets for the rookie early on. Germie Bernard is going to start the season as the slot receiver for Aaron Rodgers. He was about a 35% slot guy in college, and it would make sense to get the two beefers, DK Metcalf (2025 13.2% slot rate) and Michael Pittman (2025 31% slot rate), on the outside.
Bernard would fit into the Steelers as their WR3, but last season they ran the third-fewest pass plays out of wide receiver sets. That would be a big, fat discouraging statistic for Germie, except Mike McCarthy runs plays there now, and the last two seasons that Mike McCarthy ran an offense, the Cowboys passed out of three-wide receiver sets at the seventh-most (2023) and fourth-most (2024) times in the league. This all stacks up to a lot of encouraging revelations about Germie and his rookie campaign, at least from an opportunity standpoint.
Bernard is going to finish inside the top-five among rookie wide receivers, behind two of the big three (Tate/Lemon/Tyson), and one of the Browns guys (Concepcion/Boston). He’s going cheap as all get out. I am all in on Bernard at that price, given that you can just cut him if it doesn’t work out, and that he has top-36 upside for fantasy football purposes.
Undervalued: Rico Dowdle, Running Back (RB31, Pick 87 OVR)
Overvalued: Jaylen Warren, Running Back (RB27, Pick 70 OVR)
These two are getting the combo meal approach because, in reality, they should be swapped. Dowdle is a better running back than Jaylen Warren, but the fantasy football community spent so long gnashing their teeth that Warren deserved a bigger opportunity that they forgot to readjust his talent level once he received said opportunity.
Let’s start with Dowdle, who comes over from Carolina. Last year, Dowdle finished as the RB22 in fantasy points per game last season, despite getting several games burned off while the Panthers tried to figure out the best way to tell Chuba Hubbard that they were going to start Dowdle, not Hubbard. Dowdle played over 60% of snaps (the undisputed RB1 that game) seven times last season. In those seven games, he averaged 19 carries for 102 yards and 0.57 touchdowns rushing per game, along with 3.4 receptions for 29 yards. He had three games of over 125 yards rushing in that span, and was a dominant force.
Jaylen Warren, on the flip side, did not really do much to repay his biggest fans’ loyalty last season. He finished as RB18 in fantasy points per game, but he wasn’t very exciting or efficient, just quietly getting a bunch of catches (40, eleventh at the position) while being extremely inefficient as a running back (4.3 true yards per carry per PlayerProfiler.com). Dowdle barely edged him out in yards created last season, but all-in-all, Dowdle is the better back, though Warren is likely the better pass catcher.
That gives me pause in taking Warren at his price, and gets me excited about taking Dowdle at his price. Dowdle is the better player, but Warren is a nice PPR guy. With the Germie Bernard and Michael Pittman additions, however, I worry that the “nice PPR guy” role might diminish in Pittsburgh. As such, I’m not in on Warren, but I love Dowdle at his price.
