The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others—some already decided, some not.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor was re-signed, but Trai Turner was not. James Daniels and Mason Cole were added in free agency.
These are the sorts of topics among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: Which draft pick from last weekend would you most want the Steelers to do over?
The Steelers’ biggest need this year was a quarterback, and they landed their number one quarterback on their draft board—we know this for a fact, because they were the first team to pick a quarterback, and thus they had the option of all eligible college prospects.
Still, the team’s decision to draft Kenny Pickett has been, let’s say, polarizing, and understandably so. There are a lot of people who are convinced that he won’t develop into a championship-level quarterback, which is a problem when that’s what you’re drafting him to be.
Because of that, I think there will be a number of people who would most like to have the opportunity to see the Steelers re-draft the first round and take another player there—maybe even a different quarterback. But all seven picks are up for revision.
George Pickens may not have been the top player on everyone’s board when the Steelers drafted him in the second round, but I highly doubt he’s anybody’s least favorite of Pittsburgh’s picks. But how about DeMarvin Leal? Not everybody is sold on him, and others believe the third round was not the time to address the defensive line over, say, the secondary or the offensive line.
For better or worse, the Steelers’ final three draft picks have all drawn criticism. In the sixth round was Connor Heyward, a player without a true position. in the seventh round, we have an undersized former running back with one year of experience at linebacker, and a fourth-arm quarterback.
The stakes vary dramatically between the first and seventh rounds, but, in a vacuum, which draft pick would you most like the Steelers to do over? If you want, you can answer this two ways: one, factoring in the weight of the round, and two, considering only the player itself versus other available options, regardless of round.
