Here’s a little pre-draft secret for all of you in late March. The Pittsburgh Steelers are really likely to draft a quarterback this year in the first or second round.
Wait, that’s not new news? Well, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin pretty much let that non-secret out of the bag on Sunday during his sit-down interview with Missi Matthews of steelers.com.
During his Sunday sit-down, Tomlin was asked about a fourth quarterback on the roster this offseason and how he thinks the team might go about adding one. Tomlin didn’t run from the question one bit.
“Probably the draft I think is our target as we sit here today,” Tomlin told Matthews. “But there’s so many moving parts in draft development. And so that’s our target, but we’ll see what happens and transpires. Obviously, how the names come off the board have a lot to do with that.”
I apologize if that breaking news made you swallow your gum. Seriously, though, it is nice for Tomlin to confirm what many of us have thought since veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retired earlier in the offseason.
Tomlin and Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert have been to all the major quarterback pro days so far this offseason with four of them transpiring last week at Pittsburgh, Liberty, Ole Miss and Cincinnati. Another one will take place on Monday at North Carolina and while Colbert is expected to be there, Tomlin will have to miss it due to league meetings going on in Florida these next few days.
“We’ve been doing our due diligence,” Tomlin said earlier on Sunday. “We had a great week getting out and getting around last week. We dubbed it ‘quarterback week.’ It was fun to visit with those guys back-to-back in their spaces, around their universities and with their teammates.”
So, as things stand right now, it seems almost certain that the Steelers will draft one of Kenny Pickett, Malik Willis, Matt Corral or Desmond Ridder in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Will they do so at 20th overall, or will they trade up to get one of those four quarterbacks? Those are questions that we’ll have to wait a while longer to get answered.
The Steelers other three quarterbacks on the roster are now set with newcomer Mitch Trubisky joining Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins. The team indicated earlier in the offseason that four quarterbacks would likely be the final offseason tally come the start of training camp.
