No Khan, Tomlin at Pro Day of Potential Steelers First-Round Pick Quinyon Mitchell

The Pittsburgh Steelers were represented at the Toledo Rockets pro day on Tuesday, even though top prospect and potential first-round draft pick Quinyon Mitchell wasn’t running.

The Steelers sent director of college scouting Dan Colbert to Toledo to gather info at the school’s pro day at Tuesday, but the Steelers have been after Mitchell a long time.

They twice sent scouts to be at his games in-person in 2023, then Mike Tomlin did some serous in-person scouting of Mitchell at the 2024 Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, when Tomlin challenged him to face Michigan wide receiver Roman Wilson in 1-on-1 competition.

Wilson got the best of that matchup, but Mitchell was one of the best players overall at the Senior Bowl and continued his strong offseason with a fantastic showing at the 2024 NFL Combine.

In Indianapolis, Mitchell ran a 4.33-second 40-yard dash, the second-fastest time of any cornerback in the class. He also posted a 38-inch vertical. His overall Relative Athletic Score is a 9.78 out of 10.

Thanks to that strong performance, he chose to sit out Toledo’s pro day, which brings up an interesting question. The Steelers have traditionally only selected players that were scouted in-person by their head coach or general manager at a pro day in the first round.

But with fewer and fewer top picks participating at their pro days, there’s little reason for Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan to be in attendance — especially at a place like Toledo, where Mitchell is the only player in the NFL Mock Draft Database top 300.

The Steelers also did not do formal interviews at the 2024 NFL Combine with players like Mitchell that they had met with extensively at the Senior Bowl, so Khan and Tomlin had just one good chance to get to to know him.

It’ll be interesting to see if Mitchell remains on the Steelers’ wish list for pick No. 20 with just a junior-level staffer in attendance for his pro day.