Steelers Draft Digest: Pittsburgh Meets With QB, Witherspoon Mock Draft

The Steelers draft brass links up with another quarterback, and Pittsburgh targets yet another highly touted cornerback in the first round.

: In a new mock draft conducted by Devin Jackson of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Steelers draft plans land in the secondary as they select Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon. With Joey Porter Jr. off the board already, the Steelers take my favorite cornerback in the class and a physical tone-setter for them in the secondary.

Jackson views Witherspoon as an AFC North type of cornerback who can fit exactly what the Steelers need there, and it makes plenty of sense as a result. Witherspoon is a versatile defensive back that can give the Steelers the alpha guy they need in the secondary, even if Cam Sutton returns to the team.

: PFF stated some interested early and late-round fits for the Steelers that they believe could fit. With Mike Tomlin’s involvement at the Senior Bowl every year, they went to Mobile to get both fits. The early fit is Ohio State OT Dawand Jones while the late-round fit is South Carolina CB Derius Rush.

“Since head coach, Mike Tomlin was front and center at the Senior Bowl, why not give him two Senior Bowl players for this exercise? The Steelers need a lot of help at offensive tackle, and the 6-foot-8, 375-pound Jones would be a welcomed addition (they could also flip Chukwuma Okorafor to left tackle, where he played in college. Pittsburgh will have to address a hole at outside cornerback, too, and Rush consistently put together good reps in Mobile,” they wrote.

Both do make sense and Okorafor could flip sides if they needed him to do so. However, he is starting to get a rhythm at right tackle at this point, so flipping him could throw off chemistry and performance across the line for Jones’s sake.

: Pittsburgh seems to have met with a number of quarterbacks at the NFLPA Game this year, and that is no different for Incarnate Word’s Lindsey Scott Jr. According to Ethan Hurwitz, the Steelers met with Scott at the NFLPA Game to vet the quarterback. Standing at only 5-foot-11, he is undersized, but he threw for an absurd 60 touchdowns. The Steelers draft brass has to at least talk and seeks out a guy that can put up numbers like that. Scott is an intriguing option for the Steelers to look at and sign in the undrafted free-agent process.

: Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports took a look at the Chiefs’ roster and tried to see how teams could potentially parse out parts of their teambuilding and use it. One of the interesting ones that pertained to the Steelers was the idea of a massive stonewall tackle like Orlando Brown. Trapasso listed Dawand Jones and Darnell Wright, two players who Pittsburgh saw in Mobile at the Senior Bowl, as players that could flash into that bucket. So, if you are trying to take away some lessons from the Super Bowl, that might not be a bad place to start.

: Todd McShay mocked the Steelers Christian Gonzalez, another top cornerback, but this time, out of Oregon. That comes as a little surprising given the location of where the Steelers usually try and draft from, however, Gonzalez was up there as the best player available with most of the top offensive linemen gone. Could he land with the Steelers? It is possible, and he certainly will land with all the measurements that they will love to have in their cornerbacks.