The Steelers are now in their offseason after failing to reach the playoffs in 2022, coming up just a game short of sneaking in as the seventh seed. They needed help in week 18 and only got some of it, so instead they sat home and watched the playoffs with the rest of us.
On tap is figuring out how to be on the field in January and February instead of being a spectator. They started out 2-6, digging a hole that proved too deep to dig out of even if they managed to go 7-2 in the second half of the year.
Starting from the end of the regular season and leading all the way up to the beginning of the 2023 season, there are plenty of questions that need answered, starting with who will be the offensive coordinator. Which free agents will be kept? Who might be let go due to their salary? How might they tackle free agency with this new front office? How might they tackle the NFL Draft? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout this offseason, as we have for many years.
Question: What is your least favorite pick from the Steelers’ draft this past weekend?
As I always do on this topic, I think it would be most useful to discuss the matter from multiple angles. Most people’s least-favorite pick will frequently be some seventh-round selection they had previously never heard of, and that’s not terribly interesting.
So go ahead, feel free to name your least favorite Steelers draft pick overall, even if you’re going to name Spencer Anderson. But I would also ask you to pick your least favorite from the first four rounds, which includes five of the Steelers’ seven picks in total.
I’m not sure how many votes there will be for Broderick Jones in the first round, Joey Porter Jr. in the second round (especially since it was in the second and not the first), or third-round tight end Darnell Washington, but hey, you never know.
And so I’m guessing the two most popular answers to the prompt regarding the top four rounds will be second-round defensive lineman Keeanu Benton and fourth-round outside linebacker Nick Herbig. In terms of draft value, neither selection was regarded as particularly overdrafted or underdrafted, but what about the players?
A lot of people did want the Steelers to address the defensive line early, so mission accomplished, but was Benton, or a player like Benton, what they had in mind? He’s not quite a traditional nose tackle, but nor would he be suited as a 3-4 end. Does he have enough finesse to raise his pass-rush game?
There has already been a lot of talk about Herbig, with many in the pre-draft process believing that he would be best suited to playing off-ball linebacker. While his 6’2”, 240-pound frame are part of that discussion, the biggest concern for many is his short arms and his ability to hold up on the edge.
