Will the Pittsburgh Steelers be looking to select another wide receiver in the 2021 NFL Draft? More importantly, would they even consider selecting one in the first few rounds? Seth Galina of Pro Football Focus certainly thinks there’s a chance of both of those things happening as evidenced by his latest mock draft that he released on Monday.
In his latest mock for PFF, Galina has the Steelers selecting Purdue wide receiver Rondale Moore 24th overall in the first round and below is his reasoning for doing so.
With Ben Roethlisberger and his (way below) average depth of target coming back in 2021, the Steelers need someone to take those short passes and make plays. That’s what Rondale Moore can do. Also, out of all the shifty, gadget type of receivers, Moore is probably the best overall receiver of the bunch.
Key Change: Despite the abundance of short passes, the Steelers were still only 22nd in the league with 4.8 yards after the catch per reception. Moore’s was a clean 7.0 over the last two seasons.
In his three seasons at Purdue, Moore, who is listed on the Purdue site at 5’9″, 180-pounds, caught 178 passes for 1,915 yards and 14 touchdowns. 12 of those 14 touchdowns came during the 2018 season, however. He also retuned some kickoffs and punts during his college career as well. 16 of his receptions went for 25 yards or more.
Sam Monson of PFF did a more thorough profile on Moore earlier this month and you can read it here. The thing that really sticks out in that profile about Moore is that his average depth of target was just 5.8 yards down the field and in 2020 that number was only 3.6 yards. Yikes. Monson also indicated that Moore had a bit of a drop problem at Purdue, 10 of them in total on 188 catchable passes.
Based on the little bit of tape I have seen on Moore; I would be incredibly surprised if the Steelers selected him at 24 overall. In fact, I have hard time imagining the Steelers selecting any wide receiver in the first two rounds of the 2021 NFL Draft and that’s even if they lose wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster in the next few weeks in free agency.
While we have yet to profile Moore for the site, you can count on us doing one for him before the 2021 NFL Draft takes place. In the meantime, however, below is some tape of him for you to watch along with a link to his bio on the Purdue site.
https://purduesports.com/sports/football/roster/rondale-moore/10499
