With the NFL Combine pushed back a week, it nearly coincides with the draft’s Pro Day circuit. Pittsburgh Steelers’ personnel were spotted today at Alabama and Temple’s Pro Days. According to NFL Network’s Chase Goodbread, GM Kevin Colbert was in attendance down south.
As always, Alabama has a slew of top talent coming out of their draft class. For edge rusher, the Steelers’ biggest need, there’s Tim Williams and Ryan Anderson. Williams has higher upside and is the better pass rusher of the pair but Anderson has a clean off field history and reportedly endeared himself to teams during interviews.
Other notable names include inside linebacker Reuben Foster, now known for getting tossed from the Combine after picking a fight with a medical employee. Foster was expected to go in the top five and possibly as high as #2 to the San Francisco 49ers. It’s unclear if this incident changes those expectations.
There’s tight end O.J. Howard, the best tight end in a class riddled with talent. He won’t last to pick 30 but if there is a name the team could trade up for, it might be him. Another marquee player is safety Eddie Jackson, a big-hitting safety who broke his leg in October but was able to do some of the jumps at Indy.
Oddly enough, no Alabama player has ever been drafted under Colbert. The last one to be selected was Deshea Townsend in 1998, two years before Colbert came to Pittsburgh.
Temple’s biggest name is Haason Reddick, the edge/off-ball hybrid who has teams drooling over his Combine workout. He lit up the Combine with a 4.52 40 and 11’1″ in the broad jump and feels certain to be drafted somewhere in the late first round.
Jovan Alford reported seeing someone from the Steelers in attendance though he does not specify who.
Reddick has been mocked to the Steelers several times as someone who can help as a pass rusher and match up against big, athletic tight ends the team usually struggles with.
Guard Dion Dawkins and CB Nate Hairston are two of the other big names working out for the Owls.
