At some point, Max Iheanachor will be the Steelers’ right tackle, but he’ll have to get through Dylan Cook first. How long Cook can hold him off is yet to be seen, but he won’t go down without a fight. A veteran of practice squads and inactive lists, he has everything to play for and nothing to lose.
A former college quarterback, Dylan Cook went undrafted in 2022, signing with the Buccaneers. Though he spent that year on the practice squad, his offensive line coaches wanted to keep him. The following spring, however, they let him go, and the Steelers picked him up.
On and off, Cook has been a part of the organization ever since. In 2023, he impressed enough that he made the 53-man roster, albeit as the inactive ninth lineman. A training camp injury in 2024 threw him a curveball. After spending much of the season on IR, the team waived him shortly after activating him.
The Steelers soon thereafter re-signed Cook to the practice squad, where he remained even well into last season. After Broderick Jones’ neck injury, however, they promoted him to the 53-man roster. With Calvin Anderson also hurt, he found himself backing up Andrus Peat.
Then Peat suffered a concussion, leaving Dylan Cook to make his NFL debut, four seasons later, at left tackle mid-game in Week 14 last year. And he held up remarkably well. He finished off the regular season making four starts, then started for the Steelers in their postseason loss to the Texans.
While Cook had his hands full against Houston’s elite pass rushers, that’s about the only negative one could come up with for his performance. But now, 28 years old, he understands that he has to strike while the iron is hot.
Broderick Jones will be healthy again, at some point—probably. Either way, the Steelers aren’t waiting, which is why they drafted Max Iheanachor in the first round. With Troy Fautanu already at one tackle spot, that doesn’t leave any room for Cook. Not unless he forces them to make room.
Cook ran with the first-team offense throughout the spring, but a true evaluation of the offensive line begins during training camp. The Steelers are treating him like an incumbent, even with a new coaching staff. But the question is, can he hold off a first-round rookie, and for how long?
Part of the issue is that, because of his time on practice squads, Dylan Cook only has two accrued seasons. Even if he holds off Max Iheanachor for this entire season, he would only be a restricted free agent in 2027. And even if the Steelers planned for Iheanachor to start in 2027, they would be fools not to retain Cook.
Right now, a first-round restricted free agent tender would cost the Steelers $8,735,000 in 2027 if they wanted to apply that to Cook, or $6,261,000 for a second-round tender. That’s a fair price to pay for a starter-capable swing tackle. But to even be worth that, he knows what he has to do this summer. He has nothing to lose.
Dining and Cooking