An interesting mock draft for your Saturday morning. Over at CBS Sports, R.J. White put together his latest mock draft. At pick #28, the Pittsburgh Steelers select LSU running back Derrius Guice, an idea that already floated around for the past month but has picked up steam given their recent interest in him.
In his explanation for the selection, White tossed out the idea of drafting Guice to turn around and trade Le’Veon Bell. To the Philadelphia Eagles. Here’s what he writes.
“If the Steelers don’t get Le’Veon Bell signed to a long-term deal by the draft, it’s possible they pivot to selecting Guice, a player in whom they’ve shown plenty of interest in the run up to the draft. It would be fascinating to see if the Steelers could turn around and trade Bell after selecting Guice; could they get the Eagles to send over a Jordan Hicks or Mychal Kendricks plus a pick for the talented back? Could you even begin to imagine Bell on that offense?”
Sure, we are definitely floating into “Madden” territory at this point. Trading Bell, as we’ve talked about before, is almost certain to not happen. There’s no good reason to trade an elite talent when you’re in the middle of a Super Bowl run and as I talked about on Friday’s Terrible Podcast, the last *best* chance for the team to make a run. Giving up Bell probably means getting picks, not players, anyway.
To the main point. Is Guice in play for the Steelers? We’ll delve into it at a later point but yes, it seems to be possible, if only for the top talent that he is and someone who fits the mold of a high-character players. There’s certainly pros and cons of taking him, we’ll wait on that too, but I’m not going to say it’s impossible. Because it is possible, even if dealing Bell isn’t.
White tacked on a second round in this mock, dealing the Steelers Texas ILB Malik Jefferson at pick 60. He admits Jefferson is better in a 4-3 but Jefferson is a productive, plus athlete who fills a need and has potential as a long-term Mack linebacker.
