Steelers Top Brass Skips Pro Day of Potential First-Round DT
The Pittsburgh Steelers top brass skipped the Oregon pro day on Tuesday, putting the status of one of their potential first-round draft picks in doubt. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Omar Khan did not make the trip to the West Coast to watch the Ducks work out, despite a bumper crop of draftable prospects.
Chief among those from a Pittsburgh perspective is defensive tackle Derrick Harmon, who is one of three defensive linemen, along with Michigan’s Kenneth Grant and Ole Miss’ Walter Nolen, who could be available to the Steelers at No. 21 overall in the first round.
The Steelers have often drafted almost exclusively from schools where their head coach or general manager was in attendance at the team’s pro day over the last two decades, but they snapped a long streak of having done so in 2024, with another West Coast team, as neither Khan nor Tomlin was at the pro day of 2024 Steelers first-round pick, Washington tackle Troy Fautanu.
The Steelers had a formal visit with Harmon at the 2025 NFL Combine. We’ll see if he comes to Pittsburgh for one of the team’s 30 pre-draft visits, as Fautanu did last year. Last year, offensive line coach Pat Meyer went to Washington to work out Fautanu, but defensive line coach Karl Dunbar was not spotted at Oregon on Tuesday.
Harmon is far from the only potential Steelers draft pick on the Ducks. Wide receiver Tez Johnson is a mid-round option, while nose tackle Jamaree Caldwell, quarterback Dillon Gabriel, cornerback Jabbar Muhammad and running back Jordan James are day three options.
So far, Tomlin has attendee just two pro days and Khan one. They were both at Georgia on March 12, and Tomlin was at Clemson with coordinators Arthur Smith and Teryl Austin on March 13. They’ll both be at the Alabama pro day on Wednesday, and took quarterback Jalen Milroe out to dinner on Tuesday night.