Ahead of the 2018 NFL Scouting Combine getting underway in Indianapolis, a few new mock drafts are starting to surface. On Tuesday, Chad Reuter of nfl.com released a four-round mock draft and includes a few interesting choices for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In the first-round of his latest mock Reuter has the Steelers picking Georgia running back Sony Michel with the 28th overall selection and he writes of the choice:
Let’s say the Le’Veon Bell situation goes sideways — Michel has a similar skill set, so this would be a good addition for the Steelers.
During his career at Georgia, Michel, who measured in at the combine at 5105, 214-pounds, rushed for 3,638 yards and 33 touchdowns on 591 total carries. He also caught 64 passes for another 621 yards and 6 touchdowns during his four years at Georgia. One of his better games last season came against Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl and you can watch cutups from that contest below.
In all honesty, it will be quite a surprise if the Steelers ultimately draft a running back in the first round this year. With that said, Michel is an extremely talented player and fun to watch. However, I think he’s more of a day-two prospect all things considered.
In the second round of his mock, Reuter has the Steelers selecting Penn State safety Marcus Allen 60th overall. He also had the safety going to the Steelers in the second round of the first multi-selection mock he released a few weeks ago.
Allen, who measured in at this year’s Senior Bowl at 6021, 215-pounds, played in 52 games over the course of four seasons at Penn State. He recorded 321 total tackles in addition to one interception and 11 total pass breakups. A versatile safety, Allen is expected to be selected somewhere in the first two or three rounds of this year’s draft ahead of the scouting combine taking place.
The Steelers are certainly expected to select a safety in the first few rounds of this year’s draft so Allen figures to be a name to watch in the coming weeks. With Allen playing his college football at Penn State, the Steelers probably already have quite a bit of information on him as he was easy to scout in the vicinity.
In the third round of his mock, Reuter has the Steelers selecting South Carolina State linebacker Darius Leonard.
In 43 games at South Carolina State, Leonard registered 393 total tackles of which 53.5 of them resulted in lost yardage. He also had 21.5 sacks, 6 interceptions, 8 forced fumbles and 7 pass breakups.
Leonard will obviously be a player the Steelers will want to learn more about during the combine and as we saw a few years ago, the organization is not afraid to draft small school stars as they did just that a few years ago with defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, who coincidentally also went to South Carolina State. Will Leonard last to the third round, however? Time will tell, but his tape shows he would fit with the Steelers.
If not for the selection of Michel in the first round, this Steelers mock obviously addresses a few needs the team has and ones they are expected to address in the first three rounds. Reuter would have been better served to perhaps mock an edge rusher to the Steelers in the first round if he was set on leaving safety and inside linebacker for the next two rounds.
