The 2018 NFL pro day schedule is now coming to a close and thus thers a good chance that Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert and head coach Mike Tomlin are done traveling to college campuses for now. With this part of the pre-draft process now completed, it’s always fun to take a look back at where all Colbert and Tomlin have been this spring in order to possibly determine which player might ultimately be the teams first-round selection this year.
As previously mentioned, I believe you have to go all the way back to 2009 to find the last time that the Steelers drafted a player in the first-round that Colbert did not attend their pro day. That player was defensive lineman Ziggy Hood. Since then, Colbert has reportedly attended the pro days of every player drafted by the Steelers in the first-round.
In total, we have Colbert down for attending nine pro days over the course of the last several weeks. Tomlin was reportedly with Colbert for at least seven of these pro days. This doesn’t mean that Tomlin didn’t attend the other two, it just means there weren’t any credible reports that he was in attendance. The two mystery pro days this year were the ones at Georgia and Penn State.
Below is a list of the nine pro days that Colbert reportedly attended this spring along with the top-rated players that he likely was in attendance to see who could potentially wind up being drafted in the first-round this year.
The two most notable pro days that Colbert failed to attend this year were the ones that took place at Stanford and Boise State. The two main Steelers prospects for each of those colleges, safety Justin Reid and linebacker Leighton Vander Esch, are both expected to be brought in for pre-draft visits in the coming weeks, however.
So, is the Steelers 2018 first-round selection listed below?
Alabama – March 7, 2018
CB Minkah Fitzpatrick
WR Calvin Ridley
LB Rashaan Evans
DL Da’Ron Payne
S Ronnie Harrison
Wake Forest – March 13th, 2018
S Jessie Bates III
Virginia Tech – March 14, 2018
LB Tremaine Edmunds
Oklahoma State – March 15, 2018
QB Mason Rudolph
Penn State – March 20, 2018
RB Saquon Barkley
TE Mike Gesicki
Georgia – March 21, 2018
LB Roquan Smith
G Isaiah Wynn
EDGE Lorenzo Carter
RB Sony Michel
Ohio State – March 22nd
CB Denzel Ward
Louisville – March 29th
QB Lamar Jackson
CB Jaire Alexander
LSU – April 4th
RB Derrius Guice
CB Donte Jackson
EDGE Arden Key
