The Pittsburgh Steelers, at least as it currently stands, will not have a selection in a draft in 2020 for the first time since 1967. And unless they make a trade with the Miami Dolphins, to whom they traded their first-round pick, to get it back, it will also be the second time in as many years that they will have failed to make their first-round selection where slotted.
Of course, general manager Kevin Colbert trading up in the first round last year and then trading away a first-round pick bucks a lot of trends in Steelers history, both recent and more long-term, so that does shake up the expectations of the possibilities somewhat.
With that said, while Colbert will not rule out the possibility of attempting to make a trade to get back into the first round, he acknowledge in speaking yesterday that it would be very difficult to do so. Pittsburgh only has one selection within the top 100 picks, at 49 in the middle of the second round.
“We most likely will have to wait. I can’t see us picking up a first-round pick at this point”, Colbert acknowledged yesterday. “Never say never. I can’t say we will or won’t. We will be sitting there in round two and a lot will happen in that first round. We will reconvene throughout the night on Thursday, the first round, as we see players go off”.
“We can actually be meeting as players are picked because we won’t be worried about who we’re taking”, he added. “We can be doing adjustments as we go. We are confident there will be somebody at a number of positions that will certainly improve our team and we would be anxious to take”.
As we talked about yesterday, the long-time head of the Steelers’ front office was also quick to remind what the Steelers got out of their first-round pick. They dealt that selection in exchange for Minkah Fitzpatrick, the safety Miami drafted 11th overall in 2018, acquiring him two games into the 2019 season.
He would go on to play 14 games in Pittsburgh last year, recording five interceptions, a forced fumble, and two fumble recoveries, scoring two defensive touchdowns. He was not only named a starter in the Pro Bowl for the AFC, but was including on the first-team All-Pro team, the first Steelers defensive back to earn that distinction since Troy Polamalu.
One does have to wonder how tempted the Steelers might be to try to move into the first round, just because of how highly they value that resource, but they have such limited capital with which to attempt to finagle such an arrangement that it’s essentially a fool’s errand to even contemplate it.
