Former NFL general manger and current NFL Network analyst Charley Casserly released his first mock draft of 2018 on Tuesday and he curiously has the Pittsburgh Steelers selecting a running back with their first-round pick.
Casserly has the Steelers drafting LSU running back Derrius Guice 28th overall in his first mock draft of 2018 and here is what he wrote about the selection:
I am not optimistic the Steelers will get a long-term deal done with Le’Veon Bell, which is why Guice makes sense here.
Really, Guise doesn’t make sense there, Charley. For starters, even if the Steelers don’t sign Bell to a long-term deal in the coming weeks or months, there’s still a very good chance he’ll be given the franchise tag. Assuming that’s the route ultimately taken, Guice would surely not receive much playing time during his rookie season and the Steelers hate seeing their first-round draft picks sit.
Casserly isn’t the only NFL.com analyst to mock Guice to the Steelers in the first-round, however, as Bucky Brooks did the same thing just more than two weeks ago in his first version.
Bad choice for the Steelers aside, Guice is indeed a very talented running back with quite an interesting backstory. In his three seasons at LSU, Guice, who reportedly measures in at around 5-11, 212-pounds ahead of this year’s scouting combine, rushed for 3,074 yards and 29 touchdowns on 471 total carries. 1,251 of those rushing yards, along with 11 of those rushing touchdowns, came during the 2017 season.
Guice caught just 32 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns during his college career with 18 of those receptions coming last season. And the Baton Rouge, Louisiana native also returned kickoffs at LSU during the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Guice will reportedly turn 21 years of age in June and as far as his interesting backstory goes, his father was reportedly murdered roughly 15 years ago and his brother was arrested and charged with murder counts roughly a year and a half ago.
Is the first-round a round too early for Guice? It’s possible.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Casserly’s first mock draft of 2018 is that he doesn’t have a safety coming off the board until pick 30 and it’s Derwin James of FSU. While not probably best-suited to play a lot of free safety at the NFL level, James is a freakish athlete and might just be the first safety drafted this year. Would the Steelers really pass him up should he be around at 28th overall? I doubt it.
Why do these major media draft analysts keep mocking either a running back or a cornerback to the Steelers in the first-round? It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
