The 2021 Pro Days have all but wrapped up for this draft season. We’ve done our best to track where the Pittsburgh Steelers have been. And according to our Steelers’ Pro Day tracker, we know the team attended at least 73 Pro Days over the last two months. We’ve been able to identify the personnel member(s) at 56 of those locations.
So with all that work done, let’s take a step back and conduct some quick analysis of what we’ve found.
Mike Tomlin/Kevin Colbert’s Trips
Tomlin and Colbert attended nine Pro Days this draft season. They attended every school together compared to past years, where they would occasionally travel without the other. Here’s how that compares to recent years.
2021: 9
2020: 1 (due to the pandemic, of course)
2019: 10
2018: 9
2017: 9
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the Tomlin/Colbert schedule didn’t change much at all. There were the same number of Pro Days this year as there were in 2017 and 2018, and only one fewer than 2019 (when Kevin Colbert attended a whopping six of them without Tomlin).
In 2021, the Pro Days Tomlin/Colbert attended were:
Clemson
Georgia
Auburn
Florida State
Alabama
Penn State
Michigan
Ohio State
Notre Dame
History says the Steelers’ first round pick will come from one of these schools.
Here’s the list of players we know had Tomlin/Colbert at their Pro Day and we know had a Zoom meeting with the team.
Travis Etienne/RB Clemson
Najee Harris/RB Alabama
Anthony Schwartz/WR Auburn
Nico Collins/WR Michigan
Pat Freiermuth/TE Penn State
Daelin Hayes/EDGE Notre Dame
Baron Browning/ILB Ohio State
Asante Samuel Jr./CB Florida State
So pay special attention to those eight names.
Let’s take it a step further. Here’s the number of Pro Days I spotted each member of the team at. I’ll include the Pro Day location of the coordinators, too.
Coaching Staff
Head Coach Mike Tomlin: 9
OL Coach Adrian Klemm: 5 (Wisc-Whitewater, North Dakota St, Northern Iowa, Ohio State, Notre Dame)
Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada: 3 (Clemson, Alabama, Texas A&M)
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Smith: 3 (Georgia Tech, Boise State, Kentucky)
Asst OL Coach Chris Morgan: 3 (Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas A&M)
RBs Coach Eddie Faulkner: 2 (Alabama, North Carolina)
DL Coach Karl Dunbar: 2 (La Tech, Florida State)
ILB Coach Jerry Olsavsky: 2 (Missouri, Purdue)
Assistant OLBs Coach Denzel Martin: 2 (Illinois, Tulsa)
Senior DBs Coach Teryl Austin: 2 (TCU, Virginia Tech)
QBs Coach Mike Sullivan: 1 (Alabama)
WRs Coach Ike Hilliard: 1 (Auburn)
Assistant WRs Coach Blaine Stewart: 1 (West Virginia)
TEs Coach Alfredo Roberts: 1 (Penn State)
DBs Coach Grady Brown: 1 (Georgia)
Defensive Coordinator Keith Butler: 0
Scouting Staff
Kevin Colbert: 9
Senior Scout Rick Reiprish: 6 (Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Florida Atlantic, Florida, UCF, Middle Tennessee State)
College Scouting Director Phil Kreidler: 6 (Pitt, Central Arkansas, Northern Iowa, Memphis, Alabama, Iowa State)
Area Scout Kelvin Fisher: 6 (TCU, North Texas, SMU, Tulsa, Houston, Baylor)
Area Scout Mark Gorscak: 5 (La. Tech, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, UL-Lafayette, Tulane, LSU)
Area Scout Dan Colbert: 4 (Kent State, Bowling Green, Toledo, Michigan State)
Area Scout Mark Bruener: 3 (BYU, Washington, Oregon)
Player Personnel Coordinator Dan Rooney Jr.: 2 (Wake Forest, Coastal Carolina)
Area Scout Dave Petett: 2 (Buffalo, Wisconsin)
Team Analyst Tosin Kazeem: 2 (West Virginia, Virginia)
Area Scout Chidi Iwuoma: 2 (Arkansas State, San Jose St)
Pro Scouting Coordinator Brandon Hunt: 0 (may have attended USC, never confirmed)
BLESTO Scout Dennis MacInnis: 0 (may have attended Georgia Southern, never confirmed)
Area Scout Mike Butler: 0
Area Scout Bruce McNorton: 0
Some analysis of that charting.
– On the coaching side, busy Pro Day schedule for Adrian Klemm. Paying special attention to small schools they have less information on like Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Quinn Meinerz and North Dakota State’s Dillon Radunz. Two guys who performed well at the Senior Bowl the Steelers clearly wanted to get a longer look at.
– The only member of the coaching staff I didn’t see was DC Keith Butler, which is a little strange. Wonder what the story is there. Maybe there was a COVID concern that we don’t know about. Or maybe he’s really falling out of favor and is becoming a figurehead. Butler’s never been a guy I’ve seen a lot on the trail, but in past years, I’ve usually spot him a couple times. Here are the year-by-year numbers:
2019: 4
2018: 2
2017: 1
So take that information for what it’s worth, if it’s worth anything.
– This information will be incomplete so take it with a grain of salt. But here’s a list, by position, of the players we know have had in-person/virtual meetings with Pittsburgh.
QB: 3
RB: 5
TE: 2
WR: 5
OT: 6
OG: 1
C: 2
DE/DT: 1
EDGE: 4
ILB: 7
CB: 4
S: 2
