Khan Discusses Steelers Draft Strategy; Limited by Picks
PITTSBURGH — With only six draft picks, Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan said during his pre-draft press conference on Tuesday that he doesn’t think it’s realistic for the Steelers to trade up. Trading back is more likely.
“We have six picks. I don’t know how realistic it is that we move up, but you never know. I think staying put or moving back is probably a better, bigger option for us,” Khan explained.
Khan said the Steelers are open to trading down, but also said there will be players on the board that they will not trade away from.
“The way I look at it, you never want to trade away from a guy who you think can really help you. We have certain guys we won’t trade away from,” Khan said.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin agreed.
“Several. It’s a nice group at a variety of positions,” Tomlin said on how many players there are that they wouldn’t trade back, if available.
The Steelers have one of the smallest collections of picks in the 2025 NFL Draft that the team has had in recent memory. Having traded away their second-round selection for DK Metcalf, and picking at No. 21, the team is near the end of each of the six rounds they do have a selection for.
Asked about the possibility of trying to get back into the second round, Khan said, “We gave up a second-round pick for DK (Metcalf) and I’m so glad we did that.”
“Several. It’s a nice group at a variety of positions.”
Standing pat isn’t new to the Steelers, who’ve made just six such trades under the general manager tenures of Kevin Colbert and Omar Khan.
“Now that the NFL draft is four days away, this is the closest to the start of it that there have been no trades for first-round picks in the Common Draft Era, per ESPN’s @EpKap,” Schefter wrote Sunday on X. “The Joe Montana trade in 1993 came five days before the draft; this year now has surpassed that.”
The Steelers last wheeled a trade including a first-rounder in 2023 when Khan moved up three picks to take offensive tackle Broderick Jones at No. 14 overall. Before that, they gave up their first-rounder to acquire Minkah Fitzpatrick (2019) and, that same year, traded up into the top-10 to get linebacker bust Devin Bush.
Alan Saunders contributed reporting from Pittsburgh.