A bit of a fuss was made early Friday morning when it was reported by Mike DeFabo of The Athletic that the Pittsburgh Steelers would be hosting Jaxon Dart to a pre-draft visit in April. This, coming on the day of the Ole Miss pro day, had people speculating that perhaps the Rebels signal-caller would be the surprising pick for Pittsburgh at No. 21 in the first round. However, the Steelers told us with their actions on Friday that Dart won’t be the pick.

As Derrick Bell of Steelers Now pointed out, neither head coach Mike Tomlin nor general manager Omar Khan were in attendance for Ole Miss’ pro day, only assistant GM Andy Weidl was there in terms of higher-ups for the Steelers. If the two decision-makers for Pittsburgh won’t even bother to show up to watch Dart throw, they aren’t taking him.

As Bell pointed out in the comments of his post, while Tomlin and Khan weren’t at Washington’s pro day last year and took Troy Fautanu, there is a large difference between a tackle and the face of your franchise. Plus, there isn’t much you’ll learn about a tackle at a pro day in terms of on-field ability.

On the flip side, they did attend Alabama’s pro day and got an up-close and personal look at Jalen Milroe. It’s far more likely the Steelers will take Milroe in the third round and address the defensive line needs or perhaps triple down at wide receiver in the first round than take a quarterback whose pro day they didn’t care about enough to attend.

To connect this to the theory I’ve discussed throughout the day, the Steelers’ plan seems to be to trade up in the 2026 draft to get their next starting quarterback. Should they take Milroe in this year’s draft, then they’ll have two young guys on the roster who will push each other, and a potential option to turn to in Milroe if the 2026 guy doesn’t work out.