Were you surprised that the Pittsburgh Steelers selected former Virginia Tech safety Terrell Edmunds Thursday night with the 28th overall pick in the first-round of the 2018 NFL Draft? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, the 21-year-old safety didn’t even expect to hear his name announced during the first-round.
“Honestly, I thought day-two,” Edmunds said during his post-selection conference call with the Pittsburgh media when asked where in his mind he thought he might ultimately be drafted.
Edmunds, whose younger brother Tremaine Edmunds was drafted by the Buffalo Bills Thursday night in the first-round, even said during his post-selection press conference in Dallas that he was in the bathroom when the Steelers called him to tell him they were going to pick him 28th overall.
“So, I was using the restroom and they [the Steelers] were calling my phone and then I thought it was one of my friends calling me and playing around and everything,” Edmunds explained. “And then I saw the number and then I answered the phone call, and I promise on everything, I ran out of the bathroom, my pants unzipped, my belt undone, and I just ran to my parents. I couldn’t even tell them what’s going on, I was just pointing to the phone so excited and so ready.”
Due to Edmunds being graded as day-two prospect by many draft pundits ahead of Thursday night, you can probably imagine that the Steelers selecting him 28th overall in the first-round is now being regarded as a huge reach and probably even a bigger one than a few years ago when cornerback Artie Burns was selected 25th overall in the first-round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert has long claimed that the organization only drafts players they want as he dislikes selections being termed as needs. He also usually says that the annual team draft board general includes around 150 players.
So, was Edmunds the Steelers 28th ranked player entering Thursday night? We’ll never probably know the true answer to that question so for now, and is the case with every draft pick made by the Steelers, will have to go with the notion that they got the player they wanted and I’m sure they don’t give a damn if anyone outside the organization considers them reaching for that wanted player.
