Mike Tomlin recently said that the Pittsburgh Steelers were still planning on adding to the wide receiver position group this off-season and that he liked the talent in the draft. Well, Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports was listening as he has the Steelers selecting wide receiver Treylon Burks of Arkansas with the 20th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft in his latest mock draft.
Burks is the 14th rated draft prospect by CBS and the fourth rated wide receiver. He was the fourth wide receiver taken in this draft after the Kansas City Chiefs traded up to the 10th pick to select Garrett Wilson out of Ohio State ahead of the Washington Commanders who selected Drake London out of USC with the 11th pick. Jameson Williams out of Alabama was also selected before Burks, with the 19th pick by the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Burks is a contested and high-point catch machine,” said Wilson. “Don’t be fooled by his 4.55 40 at the combine — he regularly outran defensive backs to the end zone in the SEC and that won’t change in the NFL. The scariest part of his game is that he’s not even close to his ceiling yet, and what better way to get there than in Pittsburgh.
He reminds us of some combination of Anquan Boldin, Juju Smith-Schuster and A.J. Brown. The Steelers just lost Smith-Schuster and James Washington in free agency and they’ll need to add some WRs in the draft. Burks isn’t a bad place to start.”
It’s clear that the Steelers will add a wide receiver between now and the start of the 2022 season. Tomlin said that they could add a wide receiver in free agency, but it fits the Steelers’ roster-building strategy more under Tomlin and Kevin Colbert to draft their next key receiver. As of now they have seven receivers signed to contracts on their roster, but only Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool have a significant amount of experience.