Real or Smokescreen: Should We Buy Steelers Pre-Draft Interest in Positions Like QB, OLB, SS?
The Pittsburgh Steelers have made some interesting headlines over the last couple of days by bringing in a wide variety of players to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for pre-draft visits.
The Steelers major needs coming into the draft have largely been identified as defensive line, cornerback, running back and wide receiver, with quarterback expected to be filled by Aaron Rodgers at some point.
But despite that, the Steelers either have hosted or will hosted a pair of high-round quarterback options in Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart, a first-round strong safety in Nick Emmanwori and even an edge rusher Shemar Stewart.
The Steelers have now hosted or will host six running backs, five defensive tackles, four wide receivers, three quarterbacks, two cornerbacks, two safeties, one offensive lineman, one edge rusher, one tight end and one kicker.
So when it comes to positions that aren’t obvious needs, are the Steelers just running a smoke screen with players like Emmanwori or Stewart, who would appear to be solidly blocked for playing time on the Steelers defense?
Well, it’s possible, but that hasn’t been something the Steelers have done a lot of in the recent past.
In last year’s crop of pre-draft visitors, the Steelers brought in eight tackles, including first-round pick Troy Fautanu, six wide receivers (third round Roman Wilson), six interior offensive linemen, including second-round center Zach Frazier and fourth-round guard Mason McCormick, two linebackers, including third-rounder Payton Wilson, and six defensive tackles, including sixth-round pick Logan Lee.
The only position the Steelers brought in for a pre-draft visit that they didn’t draft was cornerback. They brought in seven cornerbacks last year, almost all of them projected slot players. They ended up signing one of those seven, Beanie Bishop, as an undrafted free agent.
The year before, the Steelers hosted five interior offensive linemen, four defensive tackles, four outside linebackers and three offensive tackles, drafting Spencer Anderson, Keeanu Benton, Nick Herbig and Broderick Jones at those positions. Darnell Washington was the only tight end they drafted. The Steelers also brought in a couple late-round quarterbacks and five wide receivers, but did not draft either of those positions.
So over two drafts run by Omar Khan, the Steelers have brought in players at seven different positions groups for pre-draft visits, and they’ve drafted players at five and seven of those positions.
They are a little bit more spread out this year, with 10 position groups represented. They certainly can’t draft all of them. But given Khan’s track record, we should take the team’s interest level in at least some of those positions seriously.