One of my favorite parts about playing Madden as a kid was Franchise Mode, where you could be the GM/head coach of your favorite team and control all aspects of the roster as you attempted to lead your team to a dynasty as a perennial Super Bowl contender. One of the options in Franchise Mode was conducting a fantasy draft, putting ever NFL player up for grabs as all 32 teams selected from the pool of all players to reconstruct their teams the best way they saw fit.
Chad Reuter of NFL.com just published a seven-round mock draft following this same principle, using a snake draft with each NFL team among all the players in the league, mixing veteran and young talent with the purpose to win now. Each team was given all seven of its original draft picks prior to trades with the draft order flipping every round.
The Pittsburgh Steelers started things off at 17th overall, selecting San Francisco 49ers OT Trent Williams and followed that up by taking his teammate, TE George Kittle 48th overall in the second round.
“The soon-to-be 35-year-old Williams is still the league’s best offensive lineman, and the Steelers tab him to lock down the left side after they struggled there in 2022,” Reuter wrote.
“This feels like a match made in football heaven, with Kittle’s receiving and blocking skills epitomizing what Steelers fans want to see at the position,” Reuter wrote on the Kittle selection.
The Steelers rounded out Reuter’s mock draft by taking QB Desmond Ridder in the third round, EDGE Za’Darius Smith in the fourth round, DL Derrick Brown in the fifth round, S Budda Baker in the sixth round, and WR DeAndre Hopkins in the seventh round.
When looking at Pittsburgh’s selections in Reuter’s mock draft, you see a notable trend: add established veterans more on the older side who have produced at a high level in the league. Williams is arguably the best LT in football still at the age of 35, having the size, strength, and technique to be a dominant run blocker and pass protector. Kittle is the best all-around TE in the game, having the receiving prowess to go over 1,000 yards every season while being the best blocking TE in the league. The two 49ers almost resemble the actual draft selections Pittsburgh made in the 2023 NFL Draft, adding Georgia OT Broderick Jones and TE Darnell Washington to beef up the running game.
The selection of Ridder in the third round was a bit of a head scratcher, but with little proven options available, Reuter opted to go with the youth movement at QB. Ridder was a polarizing prospect coming out of Cincinnati, having a big arm and a dual-threat skill set, but struggled at times with poise in the pocket and inconsistent accuracy. Ridder went 2-2 as a starting QB last season as a rookie, completing 63.5% of his passes while throwing for 708 yards and two TDs along with 64 rushing yards.
Reuter addressed the defense with the next three picks, taking a premier pass rusher in Za’Darius Smith, who got traded from Minnesota to Cleveland this offseason. In the last three seasons that Smith has played, he has gone for double-digit sacks. Derrick Brown is a young defensive lineman who doesn’t provide a great pass rush, but he is one of the best run-stuffing DTs in the game at the age of 25. Budda Baker is a do-it-all safety for the Cardinals who makes an impact all over the football field, being named to five Pro Bowls and nominated as a two-time first team All-Pro by the age of 27.
The Steelers closed out the draft by selecting WR De’Andre Hopkins, a veteran receiver who complements Ridder well in the passing game. Hopkins is one of the best contested-catch receivers in the league and is an effective chain mover as well as a red zone threat. Giving Ridder a target like Hopkins who can go up and get the football should only help Ridder and his development much like Hopkins has helped the likes of Deshaun Watson and Kyler Murray during their NFL careers.
