As the 2026 NFL Draft ticked toward the 21st overall pick, Makai Lemon was already on the phone with Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan. As far as Pittsburgh was concerned, the USC wide receiver was coming to them. But the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles executed a trade, sending the 23rd, 114th, and 137th picks to get the Cowboys’ 20th overall pick. Eagles GM Howie Roseman used the pick to take Lemon, and Pittsburgh, sitting one spot behind at No. 21, never got the chance.

“Pittsburgh is pissed about this,” Cowboys insider Nick Harris noted afterwards. “They feel like Dallas duped them. They, especially with the draft being in Pittsburgh, felt embarrassed on a national stage.”

So when Steelers President and Owner Art Rooney II went on the Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show on Tuesday, he faced the same question. “No, no, no. No hard feelings with Jerry,” the Steelers’ owner said and effectively pushed back on the existing narrative.

“Those things happen in every draft where the team in front of you jumps and then picks somebody that you wanted, or somebody trades up in front of you and grabs somebody that you wanted. That’s why you kind of have a short list going into every pick, and you just roll with the next guy in your list. And so we’re happy we got Max.” 

Pittsburgh then took Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor 21st overall. Iheanachor is the third offensive lineman Pittsburgh has taken in the first round over the last four years, following Broderick Jones in 2023 and Troy Fautanu in 2024. 

Iheanachor allowed zero sacks on 484 pass-blocking snaps in 2025 and posted a 78.3 pass-blocking grade, per PFF. At Arizona State, he played right tackle in a ‘gap scheme’ that mirrors how Pittsburgh deploys its line. Steelers’ new head coach Mike McCarthy already saw the upside Max brings.

“The biggest thing when you watch linemen play, you want to see them strike and stick, and with that the balance and the footwork,” McCarthy said. “His ability to stay alive on second and third reaction when he does engage, I think it’s all over the video.”

As for missing out on Makai Lemon, Art Rooney II’s composure also has history behind it. In 2023, Pittsburgh traded up from 17th to 14th overall – sending picks 17 and 120 to the New England Patriots – to grab Broderick Jones ahead of teams interested in him. Going back more than a decade offers another example that ties directly to this story.

In 2014, linebacker Ryan Shazier was already on the phone with Dallas when the Steelers took him 15th overall, one spot ahead of where the Cowboys sat at No. 16. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Gerry Dulac even wrote after the Lemon trade that Dallas’ move may have been a direct callback to that moment.

You don’t complain about a move you’ve run yourself – twice. For Art Rooney II, this was just a part and parcel of the chaos draft night brings. Meanwhile, Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones, for his part, wasn’t pretending the Steelers had no reason to be annoyed.

Jerry Jones, Al Davis, and the call he wasn’t supposed to answer

When Dallas media asked Jerry about Pittsburgh’s frustration days after the draft, he pushed back on the idea that it was personal – then offered something close to an apology in the same breath.

“I don’t want to get on their bad side,” Jerry said. “I’m sorry if they’re mad. But boy, I’ll tell you what, we’ve had it happen to us a bunch of times. It traded right out from under us. That’s why we (traded) those (fifth-round picks to move up to get Caleb Downs).”

Dallas’ defensive woes had been the defining narrative all of last season. To fix that, they needed the Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, among other additions. Jones also spoke highly of the Rooney family and Mike McCarthy (his former head coach). This, per Cowboys insider Jon Machota, helped ease any possible friction between the franchises.

When the media pressed him on why he answered Eagles general manager Howie Roseman’s call at all, he reached back to Al Davis, the Raiders owner who mentored him when he entered the league in 1989. Davis had advised Jerry to never trade within his division, but Jones chose to ignore that old advice.

“Al Davis, probably the first thing he tried to put in my head was, ‘Don’t even answer a call from your division,’” Jones recalled. “‘Jerry, this is all about strategizing against your division opponents because you play them twice, and you can’t forget that edge there. That’s a very strategic edge.’ So I didn’t take that lesson from Al.” 

Jones chose to answer Roseman’s call. That’s the only reason Lemon is in Philadelphia right now. But Dallas wasn’t targeting the Steelers – Jones saw a deal worth making, and Pittsburgh was just collateral damage.

Art Rooney II understood all of that before he sat down at the DVE Morning Show. “No hard feelings” wasn’t just grace on Rooney’s part; it was just business.