NFL Draft Guide 2023: Who Steelers might pick, position breakdowns, mock drafts
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The Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to target a tackle or cornerback early in this year’s draft. So, which position and who will it be?
Tribune-Review sports writers Joe Rutter, Chris Adamski and Tim Benz have taken a look at the top players available at each position and put together comprehensive coverage on who they believe the Steelers will end up picking in efforts to bolster their roster for this upcoming season.
The Steelers have seven picks in the 2023 NFL Draft, starting with No. 17 in the first round. Here’s where the Steelers will be drafting:
- 1st Round (17th pick overall)
- 2nd Round (32nd pick overall – from Bears, acquired in Chase Claypool trade)
- 2nd Round (49th pick overall)
- 3rd Round (80th pick overall)
- 4th Round (120th pick overall)
- 7th Round (241st pick overall – from Broncos, acquired in Malik Reed trade)
- 7th Round (251st pick overall – from Rams, acquired in Allen Robinson trade)
The Steelers traded their 2023 fifth-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks in 2021 for cornerback Ahkell Witherspoon and their sixth-round pick to the Denver Broncos for outside linebacker Malik Reed at the beginning of last season. In the same trade with the Broncos, the Steelers acquired a 2023 seventh-round pick. They traded their original seventh-round, 234th pick overall to the Los Angeles Rams for wide receiver Allen Robinson and picked up the seventh-round 251st overall pick.
The 88th annual NFL Draft starts with round one on Thursday at 8 p.m. and runs through Saturday. Rounds two and three will be held Friday, beginning at 7 p.m. and rounds four through seven will be held Saturday starting at noon. It can be viewed on ESPN, ABC, the NFL Network and will be live streamed on NFL+.
Follow @tribjoerutter, @C_AdamskiTrib and @TimBenzPGH on Twitter for live coverage of the draft.
Mock drafts
Since it became apparent that Joey Porter Jr. was trending toward being a first-round pick, the Steelers have been a trendy prediction as his ultimate draft destination.
A year after finding their quarterback in the first round of the NFL Draft, the Steelers would like to find someone to protect Kenny Pickett’s blind side.
Here is a positional breakdown of the NFL Draft:
Quarterback
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Passers could be taken in four of the first five selections, a contrast to the 2022 class when no quarterbacks were taken until the Steelers grabbed Pitt’s Kenny Pickett with the No. 20 overall pick. Pickett, in fact, was the only quarterback taken before the third round.
Steelers fans shouldn’t completely ignore the QB class because as franchises maneuver up and down the draft board via trades, that could impact how many passers go off the board within the top 50 picks.
Listen: Tim Benz and Matt Williamson discuss the 2023 quarterback class
Running back
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After getting their running back in Najee Harris in 2021, the Steelers found his backup last year after the draft when they signed Jaylen Warren. It’s telling how content the Steelers are at the position that they did not bring in a running back for a top-30 visit.
Wide receiver
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Five times in the past six years, the Steelers have used a second- or third-round pick to draft a wide receiver. This year, with so many other areas to address, the Steelers may not add a receiver until the fourth round or later.
Tight end
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Two receivers that Tim Benz and Steelers Nation Radio host Matt Williamson both embraced as prospects for the Steelers are North Carolina’s Joshua Downs and Zay Flowers of Boston College. Flowers played at Chestnut Hill with Mike Tomlin’s son, Dino.
Listen: Tim Benz and Matt Williamson talk this year’s tight end, wide receiver class
It took until the final day of pre-draft visits for the Steelers to bring a tight end prospect – Georgia’s Darnell Washington — to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
Interior offensive line
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Judging by the players the Steelers hosted for pre-draft visits, they might not be done beefing up the guard and center spots.
Offensive tackles
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The Steelers haven’t selected a first-round tackle since Jamain Stephens in 1996. But Steelers Nation Radio host Matt Williamson says he’d use a top-17 pick on one of two players for the Steelers this year: Ohio State’s Paris Johnson Jr. and Georgia’s Broderick Jones.
Listen: Tim Benz and Matt Williamson discuss the Steelers’ options at offensive tackle
It’s a foregone conclusion that the Steelers will take an offensive tackle sometime during the first two days of the NFL Draft. It’s a matter of when.
Linebacker
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When the Steelers embarked on making over their inside linebacker room in March, perhaps they knew what awaited — or, more appropriately, didn’t await — in the NFL Draft this month.
Defensive line
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Before we ask what front-seven players the Steelers might like in the draft, we have to ask what their front seven has truly become. They are only in the 3-4 base defense 25% of the time these days. So the need for a pure nose tackle has been minimized.
Listen: Tim Benz and Matt Williamson talk Steelers front seven
Faced with an aging defensive line, the Steelers could look for Cameron Heyward’s eventual successor in this class.
Edge rushers
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One of the few position groups the Steelers didn’t reinforce in the offseason was outside linebacker. Which means a pass rusher is likely to be added among their seven draft picks, particularly on the second day when they hold picks Nos. 32, 49 and 80.
Cornerback
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Tim Benz: The Steelers desperately need a cornerback. Porter was All-Big Ten at the position in 2022 at Penn State. He’s 6-foot-2, 215 pounds and ran a 4.46 in the 40-yard dash. He’s from Pittsburgh. His dad is a former Steelers All-Pro who was once on Mike Tomlin’s coaching staff.
Listen: Tim Benz and Matt Williamson discuss secondary ahead of the NFL Draft
The change in personnel under general manager Omar Khan brings hope for Steelers fans that a change in the evaluation of college cornerbacks will follow suit.
Safety
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Given the lack of numbers in this year’s class — and their positional needs at tackle, defensive line and cornerback — the Steelers might not select a safety until the third day of the draft.
Draft visits
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The Steelers officially conducted 30 of 30 available draft visits, with an additional two visits coming from local players, including Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr. and West Virginia’s Bryce Ford-Wheaton.
Local
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Penn State football has multiple former players receiving projections to land in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. seemingly has a first round pick projection everywhere you look, while other Nittany Lions have projections with a broader range.
“I’m curious to see where he ends up going. On my final list, he ended up being my 26th overall player,” NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said of Calijah Kancey.
During Pat Narduzzi’s eight years on the job, at least one Pitt player was selected in every draft from 2015-2022. The streak will continue this week, perhaps as soon as Thursday in the first round of the NFL Draft.
More coverage
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For the second year in a row, the Steelers were uncharacteristically active in free agency.
In this mock draft, the Associated Press believes Paris Johnson has all the physical tools and intangibles to anchor the O-line and protect Kenny Pickett.
Tim Benz: For months, it seems like the Steelers’ draft decision has come down to a debate between offensive tackle or cornerback in the first round.
The bigger picture debate, though, is really quantity versus quality.
Tim Benz: They (the Steelers) seem so keyed up about that pick (No. 32); there’s only one conclusion to draw about how they want to use it. Trade it.
Joey Porter Jr expressed excitement at the prospect of the Steelers drafting him. Peter King of “Football Morning in America” raised some eyebrows with his prediction of who the Steelers will take in his mock draft. He went with Ohio State wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba at No. 17.
Preparation won’t be an issue for GM Omar Khan or coach Mike Tomlin when the first round of the draft takes place Thursday night with the Steelers holding the No. 17 overall selection. “I feel ready,” Khan said at a pre-draft news conference.
Mark Madden is convinced the franchise will select Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr., son of former Steelers All-Pro linebacker Joey Porter Sr.
Mark Madden: Don’t rule out the Steelers doing something absolutely insane, like picking a wideout even though their receiving corps seems perfectly aligned after the acquisition of Allen Robinson.
While none of the signings really caused tremors on the free agency front across the National Football League, the Steelers at least appear to have done enough to shore up the interior of their defensive line so that they can focus on other areas of need in this year’s draft.
If the Steelers decide to take a cornerback in the first round and try to hit on a tackle in the second round, draft analyst Mark Dominik pointed at Oklahoma’s Anton Harrison and North Dakota State’s Cody Mauch as candidates.
Mark Madden: If Joey Porter Jr. is available, he’s a lock to get picked. He might be the right selection made for the wrong reason.
The Steelers have drafted as many players from Duquesne as Penn State in the first round. A look at every player selected in the first round by the Steelers.
The Steelers have been awarded 36 compensatory draft picks in the 28 years that the NFL has been handing them out, with the choices ranging from players who never made the NFL to one Pro Football Hall of Fame hopeful.
The question persists: Why do people tune in to watch the draft? There are no winners or losers, at least not immediately.
The NFL draft was originally established with nine rounds, which increased to 10 the next year and to 20 in 1939, with this oddity in 1938 and ‘39: Only the five teams with the worst winning percentage in the previous season made selections in the second and fourth rounds.