Omar Khan liked moving up for an offensive tackle so much he’s doing it twice. That’s how things play out in CBS Sports’ latest mock draft, seeing an encore performance by the Pittsburgh Steelers, trading up four spots to grab one of the draft’s top offensive tackles.
Josh Edwards has the Steelers moving from No. 20 to No. 16 in a swap with the Seattle Seahawks to select Oregon State OT Taliese Fuaga.
“Pittsburgh can ill afford to wait until its first pick to see if an offensive tackle is still available, especially with Cincinnati and Los Angeles ahead of Mike Tomlin’s team. The Steelers move up to take Taliese Fuaga, who should be an impactful bookend opposite Broderick Jones for many years.”
It is a similar calculation as last season when the Steelers jumped three spots from No. 17 to No. 14 to select Georgia’s Broderick Jones. In the process, the team leaped in front of the New York Jets, rumored to take an offensive tackle, though that idea was debated throughout the draftnik/insider community. Edwards’ mock doesn’t spell out the terms of a deal, but it’d likely be similar to last year, the Steelers sending a fourth-round pick to the Seahawks to move up. Pittsburgh has a pair of fourth-round selections in 2024, making this type of deal plausible.
To the player, Fuaga has great size at 6057, 332 pounds with 33 3/8-inch arms. An experienced right tackle, his selection would make for an easy decision to put Jones back at left tackle, his natural spot where he played throughout college. It would hopefully set the Steelers’ starting tackles for years to come and would make back-to-back seasons the team drafted the position in the first round, something it never did under ex-GM Kevin Colbert.
In our Tom Mead’s scouting report, he noted that Fuaga is an impressive athlete with good balance but was penalty-prone and needs to work on his punch and placement. Ultimately, he concluded:
“Fuaga has the athleticism to play guard or tackle. Some may see him as the former, but I think he will fit nicely at right tackle and start for a long time. With his strength and athleticism, he can play in any running scheme. If the Steelers were to add him, they could have bookend tackles into the next decade.”
And gave him a first-round grade. If the Steelers have serious interest beyond a February mock draft, they’ll attend the Beavers Pro Day later this draft season. The team typically doesn’t draft West Coast prospects in the first round, but they made an exception for OG David DeCastro in 2012. They could do it again.
Elsewhere in his mock, USC QB Caleb Williams went first overall to the Chicago Bears. The first non-quarterback selected was Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr., fourth to the Arizona Cardinals. Three tackles were gone before Pittsburgh’s pick in Notre Dame’s Joe Alt (No. 5 to the Chargers), Penn State’s Olu Fashanu (No. 7 to Tennessee), and Alabama’s JC Latham (No. 10 to the Jets).
