Pittsburgh Steelers rookie WR Germie Bernard just got snubbed by the NFL Players Association despite not playing a single snap

Germie Bernard has yet to play a snap in the NFL, but he may have already received his first snub after losing out to a Baltimore Raven on the NFL Players Association’s rising stars list ahead of the 2026 season.

The NFLPA released its rising stars list ahead of the 2026 NFL season, and the Pittsburgh Steelers were nowhere to be found among the rookie selections. Four rookie wide receivers made the cut, and while three of them make perfect sense, the fourth selection is where things get interesting for Pittsburgh fans. The Steelers’ second-round pick Germie Bernard was left off the list entirely, and that feels like an oversight that could look foolish by the end of the year.

The three rookie receivers who earned their spots are easy to justify. Carnell Tate went fourth overall. Makai Lemon was a first-round pick. Jordan Tyson was a top-10 selection. No arguments there. But the NFLPA opted to include Baltimore Ravens third-round pick Jakobi Lane over Bernard, and that is where I take issue.

The case for Germie Bernard over Jakobi Lane

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Lane won’t be a good player for the Ravens. Nobody knows what will unfold in Baltimore’s training camp. We’ll wait and see. But I can just about assure you that Bernard is going to have an impact for the Steelers in Year 1.

The truth is, Bernard has done everything right since arriving in Pittsburgh. Everything we saw from him during the spring pointed to a player ready to contribute immediately. His summer workouts have only reinforced that belief. And when the pads come on at training camp, he’s going to be a force in that Steelers offense.

I don’t know yet whether Bernard will beat out Roman Wilson for a starting role. We’re going to find that out over the course of the next month. But the competition itself speaks volumes about the kind of player Pittsburgh believes it has.

Why the Steelers traded up for Bernard

There is a reason Pittsburgh traded up in the second round to select Bernard out of Alabama. The Steelers identified specific traits they wanted, and Bernard checks every box.

Physicality. Size. Strength. The ability to win at the catch point. The ability to run routes over the middle of the field. Those are the qualities that made him worth the aggressive move up the draft board, and those are the qualities that will make him a problem for opposing defenses.

Bernard could make this list look foolish

Being left off the NFLPA’s rookie rising stars list is just the latest example of how Bernard is flying under the radar heading into 2026. Snubs have a way of fueling players, and Bernard has 

the talent to make this omission look like a significant miss by the time the season wraps up.

The bottom line is that the NFLPA got three of its four rookie receiver selections right. The fourth slot should have gone to a player who was worth a trade-up in the second round, who dominated spring workouts, and who has every physical tool needed to contribute immediately in Pittsburgh. Germie Bernard belongs on that list, and he’ll have a chance to prove it starting in Week 1.

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