The Pittsburgh Steelers are allowed 30 outside-the-area pre-draft visits every year and according to general manager Kevin Colbert on Monday the team used 29 of them this year.
“I think we were at 29 official ones [that counted]. I don’t know how many locals we did,” Colbert said Monday during the teams annual pre-draft press conference.
Colbert also said Thursday that players who played their college football at West Virginia and Kent State are now considered local prospects like the ones who went to school at Pittsburgh, or are from the area, and thus they don’t count against the teams 30 allotted outside visitors.
According to reports this year from Bob Labriola of steelers.com, the Steelers had 25 out-of-the-area visitors this year in addition to 8 players who were considered local products. With Colbert claiming only 29 players came in that counted, that leaves four that went unreported, according to our tracker.
One of those four unreported draft prospects was likely Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya as he was in Pittsburgh the Saturday after Dan Rooney passed away. Kaaya had just been to Indianapolis for a medical re-check and being as the Steelers were at his pro day this year it makes sense he would be brought to Pittsburgh as well.
California quarterback Davis Webb and Ohio State linebacker Raekwon McMillan were two other players who were expected to make pre-draft visits to Pittsburgh according to online reports. Additionally, Jackson State linebacker Javancy Jones was another player the Steelers likely wanted to bring in for a visit. The team, however, worked him out on Friday, April 14, according to Jones. Whether or not those other visits ultimately happened is a mystery at this point and we might never know for sure if they did.
In summation. there’s a good chance the Steelers were forced to bring in the four unknown players on a Saturday this year due to the passing of Rooney and thus that’s likely why they went unreported.
