{"id":1030019,"date":"2026-08-28T18:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1030019\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T18:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:55:14","slug":"the-future-is-now-max-iheanachor-should-start-week-1-for-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1030019\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future Is Now: Max Iheanachor Should Start Week 1 For Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even with the time lost, Max Iheanachor is the Steelers\u2019 least-worst option at right tackle. After returning from injury<\/a>, he has shown enough. Partly because those he is competing against did not, but in the case of Iheanachor, we knew from that start that the only question was when. The answer should be now.<\/p>\n

The Steelers drafted Max Iheanachor in the first round, understanding he would be their future right tackle. Neither Dylan Cook nor Broderick Jones, two veterans, have shown enough to warrant standing in the rookie\u2019s way. It may be sooner than the timeline they expected, but even Cook hasn\u2019t shown enough to convince me that he should start Week 1.<\/p>\n

When Pittsburgh drafted Iheanachor, draft media immediately placed the \u201craw\u201d label on him. Despite ample starting experience at the college level, they held his absence of high school football against him. And to be fair, he did look like he might need some time during the spring, based on beat writer reports.<\/p>\n

That all seemed to change in a flash when the Steelers put the pads on in training camp. Unsurprising, perhaps, given that Max Iheanachor called practice without pads something like \u201cplaying in pajamas\u201d, but he looked like a different player when he was allowed to go full contact.<\/p>\n

By no later than the second day of padded practice, everybody was saying that Max Iheanachor could start Week 1. An upper-body injury, however, seriously called that into question. Reported as not serious, it proved significant enough to keep him out of the Steelers\u2019 first two preseason games.<\/p>\n

But he managed to return to the field last night. In my estimation, he did enough that it would behoove the Steelers to play him right away and live with whatever growing pains they might experience. Again, partly because I saw enough from him, and partly because I didn\u2019t see enough from Dylan Cook and Broderick Jones. I\u2019m not convinced that Iheanachor would be a worse option in Week 1 than Cook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Inserting Max Iheanachor into the starting lineup now accelerates the progression of the offensive line as a whole. He will start sooner or later, and the rest of the group seems in place. With Brock Hoffman not even playing Thursday night, it\u2019s obvious that Spencer Anderson is the starting right guard. And we know who is starting from center through left tackle.<\/p>\n

Iheanachor gave up a sack<\/a> and drew a flag for a hold, though that was a questionable call. He may have gotten away with a false start, but that is a common criticism for offensive tackles these days. If officials let them jump early, they will exploit it. The point is, I think, when the coaches go over this film with him, they won\u2019t have much to say about the holding call.<\/p>\n

Arguably, Cook and Jones came out of this game with more \u201cteach tape\u201d<\/a> than Iheanachor. He may not be as ready as they had hoped, but he is ready enough, especially in comparison to the alternatives, that the Steelers should feel comfortable enough playing him right away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even with the time lost, Max Iheanachor is the Steelers\u2019 least-worst option at right tackle. After returning from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1030020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[39],"tags":[297623,1232,1545,62,939,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1030019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-max-iheanachor","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports","tag-trending","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117174660684269350","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}