Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN conducted a conference call with the media on Monday morning and he noted during it that he could see one quarterback in this year’s class ultimately land with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second round.
Kiper said during his call when asked about Florida quarterback Kyle Trask that he could see him landing with either the Steelers or the Washington Football Team. Kiper says he could see Trask ultimately becoming the heir to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He also stated that he views Trask as more of a second-round prospect this year.
For whatever it’s worth, ESPN has Trask ranked 71st overall on their rankings of the 2021 draft class. He declared for the 2021 NFL Draft as underclassman several weeks ago and thus finished his career at Florida having completed 552-of-813 passes for 7,386 yards and 69 touchdowns in 28 game appearances. This past season, Trask was a Heisman Trophy finalist and he finished fourth overall in the voting.
Trask isn’t a very mobile quarterback and his ability to extend plays after they breakdown isn’t very impressive, and they are hard to find on his tape to boot. The fact that Kiper has Trask as more of a second-round prospect isn’t very surprising at all.
While nothing is stopping the Steelers from selecting a quarterback at any point in this year’s draft, one would think if they did so it would happen in the first-round. Currently, the Steelers are expected to have Roethlisberger back in 2021 for an 18th season and behind him backup quarterback Mason Rudolph, who is entering the final season of his rookie contract. The Steelers also signed former Washington first-round draft pick Dwayne Haskins several weeks ago and he’s expected to compete for a roster spot later in the offseason.
Our own Alex Kozora has already profiled Trask for the site and you can read his breakdown by following the link below.
