Bucky Brooks of NFL Network is the latest analyst to give praise to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ impressive draft haul this past weekend. Pro Football Focus gave the Steelers an A+ draft grade and longtime ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper handed Pittsburgh an A-.
Brooks likes that the Steelers are getting back to their roots and building through the trenches, especially on the offensive line. The Steelers have spent five picks on the offensive line in the last two drafts. Three of those picks were in the top two rounds.
“There is something about a team that drafts to the brand, and I feel like there were a couple years that the Steelers didn’t necessarily draft to the brand,” Brooks said on the Move The Sticks podcast with Daniel Jeremiah. “They’re all the way back now. The one thing that shows up in all the players that they took, there’s an innate toughness and physicality that shows up in all of their games. Even Roman Wilson, they play tough, hard-nosed ball.”
Head coach Mike Tomlin said in an interview with NFL Network during the draft that the Steelers are bolstering the offensive line because they want to pound teams up front.
“We just wanna roll people, man, to be honest with you guys,” Tomlin said. “We have some backs that we like. We have a good offensive line. We took Broderick Jones a year ago. This draft pool or class we thought was really loaded with some top-end offensive line talent and we just wanted to draw from that well.” Draw from it, they did.”
The Steelers are set up pretty well on the O-line with the additions of Fautanu and Frazier. They now have two bookend first-round tackles, a center that should be a plug-and-play, and two solid veteran guards.
“When those things match up, that’s when the really good stuff happens,” Brooks said of drafting great players that fit the culture of the team. “I can see the Steelers being back on track because they drafted guys that fit the brand.”