Steelers Awarded Third Round Compensatory Pick In 2017 NFL Draft

The NFL released the awarded compensatory selections for the 2017 NFL Draft on Friday and the Pittsburgh Steelers received a pleasant surprise.

According to the league release, the Steelers have been awarded a third-round compensatory draft pick for this year and it will be the 41st pick in that round and the 105th overall.

Below are the players the Steelers lost and gained last year during the qualified portion of the free agent signing period:

Lost: Kelvin Beachum (Jaguars), Antwon Blake (Titans), Will Johnson (Giants), Steve McLendon (Jets), Sean Spence (Titans)

Gained: Ladarius Green (Chargers), Ryan Harris (Broncos)

This certainly is a pleasant surprises being as several had the Steelers getting a fifth-round pick this year.

The Steelers extra pick in the third round will allow the team to select four players in the first 105 picks of the draft. One can easily speculate that at least one edge-rusher and one cornerback will be taken with two of those selections. As for the other two, the team could decide to spend one of them on a running back.

The last time the Steelers had four picks in the first three rounds of a draft was in 2009 and that was a result of them trading their second- and fourth-round selections (64th and 132nd overall that year to the Denver Broncos in exchange for their two third-round selections (79th and 84th overall).

Starting this year, compensatory draft picks can be traded.