NFL.com’s Chad Reuter unveiled his latest 2020 NFL Mock Draft and he has the Pittsburgh Steelers making two, shall we say, curious selections.
At #49, he has the team taking Alabama EDGE rusher Terrell Lewis. And at #104, with a projected third round compensatory pick, he has the team taking Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts.
Reuter doesn’t provide blurbs or explanations for either pick. Which is unfortunate because I’d love to see his rationalization.
Selecting any pass rusher that high only makes sense if the team loses Bud Dupree to free agency. But given Mike Tomlin and Art Rooney II’s insistence that Dupree is a “priority” and he is likely to receive the franchise tag, EDGE rusher won’t be a position the team considers highly. It’s possible Pittsburgh uses a later, Day Three pick to fill out depth, especially after safely assuming Anthony Chickillo will be released, but certainly not within their first pair of selections.
Lewis has good size at a listed 6’5, 252 pounds but has only light production as a one-year starter. In 2019, he registered 11 TFL and six sacks. If the team will take any Alabama pass rusher, it’s more likely they focus in on someone like Anfernee Jennings, who will probably get selected sometime on Day Three.
Hurts is actually the same third round selection Reuter projected the Steelers to take in his previous mock draft. While Hurts is an interesting prospect, the odds of the team taking a QB are astronomically low and something the national media has yet to realize. Pittsburgh isn’t likely to entertain the idea of selecting another QB until next year’s draft at the earliest.
Here are some notable other projections from his mock.
DT Ross Blacklock – #27 (Seattle)
RB JK Dobbins – #45 (Tampa Bay)
OC Lloyd Cushenberry – #53 (Philadelphia)
WR Denzel Mims – #60 (Baltimore)
TE Adam Trautman – #78 (Atlanta)
TE Thaddeus Moss – #98 (New England)
Like every other mock, Joe Burrow is projected to go #1. That’s followed by Ohio State’s Chase Young at #2. Check out the whole thing here.
And here’s our scouting report on Lewis.
