The Pittsburgh Steelers snagged a lot of their top targets in the 2023 NFL Draft. They traded up for Georgia tackle Broderick Jones and still managed to draft Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. in the second round. General manager Omar Khan’s first-ever draft in charge went pretty well.
I’m not the only one who is saying this. Draft expert Daniel Jeremiah tweeted shortly after the NFL Draft ended that the Steelers did a good job of getting top talent and filling needs.
Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin did a great job of addressing the team’s biggest needs: offensive tackle, cornerback, nose tackle (Keeanu Benton) with the first three picks. The Steelers then traded down and grabbed the best blocking tight end in the draft with pick 93 in Darnell Washington. The rest of the draft the Steelers added players with potential to become key contributors down the line.
What makes this draft so valuable is that the Steelers drafted three top talents with their first four picks. Jones, Porter Jr. and Washington were all consensus top-40 picks with Porter Jr. and Jones mocked in the first round. The Steelers simply had a lot of talent fall to them, and they didn’t really give up anything with it as their trade up in the first round was made up for with their trade back in round three.
Because of this the Steelers as of now have arguably the best draft class of the 2023 NFL Draft. We won’t be able to fully come to a conclusion on how good the draft class is for a few years. If the draft is as good as many pundits are saying though, the Steelers are set up really well as the Kenny Pickett era gets underway and they look to grab their seventh Super Bowl trophy.
