The Pittsburgh Steelers have a private visit scheduled with one of the draft’s “Tier 2” offensive tackles. According to SB Nation’s Justin Melo, the team is taking a close look at Boise State’s Ezra Cleveland.
Melo tells me Cleveland is flying into Pittsburgh for his visit, meaning he should count as a “Top 30” on the Steelers’ list. The organization has a strong history of drafting multiple players from their pre-draft visit list.
In a “normal” year, there’s a good chance Cleveland would’ve gone in the first round. But with this year’s crop of tackles being one of the deepest ever, five or six likely to be chosen in the Top 32, it’s probable Cleveland slips into Round Two.
Now, the odds aren’t great a guy like him would fall all the way to #49 but Pittsburgh is clearly doing their homework. Perhaps they would try to kick him inside to guard should the Steelers somehow draft him.
Cleveland is best known for his overall athleticism. At the Combine, he ran a blistering 4.93 40 and 1.73 ten split at 6’6, 311 pounds. He also benched 30 reps on the bar with a 30 inch vertical. He declared as a redshirt junior after starting all three seasons he played for the Broncos. Pittsburgh has unsurprisingly paid attention to underclassmen since they select so many and given there’s more homework to be done on those who declared early.
We’ll have a report on Cleveland in the near future.
