Size mattered to Omar Khan and Andy Weidl when they conducted their first draft as executives atop the Pittsburgh Steelers organizational food chain.
With the four picks they used over the first three rounds in 2023, they selected an offensive and defensive tackle, a tall cornerback and a massive tight end.
“They just got big. They became a big, big team,” NFL.com draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said.
In Year 2 of the Khan-Weidl regime, Jeremiah expects to see more of the same. Hulking players in the trenches, and bigger players to plug in along the secondary and possibly wide receiver.
“I don’t think they’re done,” Jeremiah said. “I think they have a clear vision of what they want that team to look like, and I thought the way they executed it last draft was perfect. I thought they had a great draft.”
The next phase in the Steelers’ evaluation as they try to establish their draft board comes this week in the form of the annual NFL Combine, the weeklong event in Indianapolis that will have 321 of college football’s top prospects in attendance.
Interviews and medical evaluations begin early in the week, with on-field testing running Thursday through Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
For Khan and Weidl, it will provide a chance to get a first-hand look at a draft class they hope rivals their 2023 selections, when the Steelers took offensive tackle Broderick Jones, cornerback Joey Porter Jr., defensive tackle Keeanu Benton and tight end Darnell Washington on the first two days.
Given the recent release of former starting right tackle Chuks Okorafor and two-year starting center Mason Cole, the Steelers can be expected to focus heavily on the offensive line prospects.
Until the Steelers traded up to get Jones last season, they hadn’t selected a tackle in the first round since 1996. Could they break precedent and do it two years in a row?
“I could see them going with another offensive lineman,” said Jeremiah, whose most recent mock draft had the Steelers taking Washington guard/tackle Troy Fautanu. “Whether it’s a tackle on the other side of Broderick Jones, whether that’s a guard/center type, I think that’s very much in play.”
The good thing for the Steelers is that most draftniks project an abundance of tackles and interior linemen being available when the Steelers pick at No. 20 in the first round or at No. 51 in the second.
ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller has left tackles Joe Alt of Notre Dame and Olumuyiwa Fashanu of Penn State going in the first nine picks, but he projects several right tackle candidates being available at No. 20. He projected the Steelers taking Jones’ former Georgia teammate Amarius Mims in the opening round.
Mims started just eight games at right tackle for the Bulldogs because of injury and the depth ahead of him on the roster. Jones went through a similar process and started only 19 times in college.
“Those eight starts (for Mims) were as good as any lineman in his class,” Miller said. “At 20, I think he’s a good value. Get these two back together and put Broderick back at the left side and put a young guy who is only 21 years old but has a high ceiling on the right side.”
In Miller’s latest two-round mock draft, he had the Steelers double dipping on the O-line and taking West Virginia center Zach Frazier. That projection was made before the Steelers released Cole on Friday, leaving them devoid of any established starting centers on their offseason roster.
Cole’s release could lead to the Steelers looking at Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson or even Frazier in the first round. Other options are Duke’s Graham Barton and Georgia’s Sedrick Van Pran.
Of Frazier, Miller said he “fits the mentality the Steelers want on their offensive line. He’s incredibly tough and physical, but the agility to play at the second level is absolutely perfect.”
Jeremiah also is bullish on the number of interior offensive line prospects available to the Steelers, which is why he mocked Washington’s Fautanu to them. Fautanu is projected to move inside to guard in the NFL.
Although the Steelers would like to get younger on the defensive line and add a long-term piece to pair with Benton, this year’s class isn’t viewed as deep in upper-tier prospects as those in previous years. If the Steelers go for defense in the first round, Jeremiah thinks they would find an outside corner to pair with Porter, who was an NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year finalist.
Levi Wallace finished the 2023 season starting alongside Porter after initially losing his job to the rookie. Wallace is a free agent, and his inconsistent play will cause the Steelers to look elsewhere. Patrick Peterson will be 34 when the season begins and, if he returns to the Steelers, it likely will be as a safety.
“I think adding another corner is something they really need to look at, and they need to get accomplished,” Jeremiah said. “Where they’re picking at 20, if you want to say what’s a home-run pick, like if you could write it in right now and turn it in and somehow guarantee it would happen, putting Quinyon Mitchell from Toledo on the opposite side … I think that would be a heck of a young secondary with Minkah (Fitzpatrick) at the top of the Christmas tree there. That would be a fun defense to watch.”
At 6-foot, Mitchell has the size that makes him attractive to pair with Porter, but he might not be on the board when the Steelers pick at No. 20. Jeremiah, though, has more than a dozen cornerbacks listed as first- or second-day options.
Miller has six with first-round grades.
“You could see a run on the corner position,” he said. “There are a lot of teams that need a corner, and there are a lot of corners there. It’s a matchup of need versus value.”
