Put a bow on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 pre-draft visitors. While I was initially worried the team wouldn’t announce its visits like years past, leaving us with an incomplete list, we know all 30 players who came into Pittsburgh, excluding the local visits.
In fact, we know too many. Based on official confirmations and media reports, our list sits at 31, one over the maximum allowed. It’s difficult to know where the overflow is coming from. Most prospects have confirmed stops with specific dates but there are a handful who don’t: Georgia WR Ladd McConkey, Georgia OT Amarius Mims, and Missouri DL Darius Robinson, all reported by media outlets as having already occurred.
There’s also the possibility of United Kingdom and International Pathway Program OT Travis Clayton not counting against the 30 visits, but I don’t know that to be a fact; that’s me just speculating. I will assume reported visits of Washington QB Michael Penix Jr., Washington RB Dillon Johnson, and Ferris State CB Shon Stephens did not occur.
Still, I wanted to recap the list of names and offer takeaways of the group. We know the obvious correlation between pre-draft visits and draft picks with roughly half the team’s list of selections likely to come from this list.
For the purposes here, I’m going to remove the player whom I am least confident in him visiting, McConkey, considering that was a passing mention in a report from The Athletic. That will get us to 30.
WR Ricky Pearsall – Florida
WR Malachi Corley – Western Kentucky
WR Xavier Legette – South Carolina
WR Tahj Washington – USC
WR Luke McCaffrey – Rice
WR AD Mitchell – Texas
OT Travis Glover – Georgia State
OT Taliese Fuaga – Oregon State
OT Troy Fautanu – Washington
OT Amarius Mims – Georgia
OL Steven Jones – Oregon
OL Mason McCormick – South Dakota State
OT Blake Fisher – Notre Dame
OT Tyler Guyton – Oklahoma
OT Travis Clayton – United Kingdom
C Jackson Powers-Johnson – Oregon
C Graham Barton – Duke
C Hunter Nourzad – Penn State
DT Braden Fiske – Florida State
DT Khristian Boyd – Northern Iowa
DL Darius Robinson – Missouri
DL Maason Smith – LSU
DL Logan Lee – Iowa
DL Jaden Crumedy – Mississippi State
ILB Payton Wilson – NC State
ILB Junior Colson – Michigan
CB Andru Phillips – Kentucky
CB Nate Wiggins – Clemson
CB Max Melton – Rutgers
CB Cooper DeJean – Iowa
I’ll quickly note the local visits, too.
OL Matt Goncalves – Pitt
C Zach Frazier – West Virginia
CB M.J. Devonshire – Pitt
CB Beanie Bishop – West Virginia
CB Daequan Hardy – Penn State
Penn State is not one of the Steelers’ local schools but Hardy is from the Pittsburgh region, a Penn Hills native. That makes him local.
Focusing on just the non-local visits, here is the team’s breakdown by position.
OT – 7
WR – 6
DL – 6
iOL – 5
CB – 4
ILB – 2
Offensive line dominates the list with 12 of the 30 names. Wide receiver and d-line tie with six while corners finish with four and a pair of inside linebackers came in late. There were zero quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends, EDGE rushers, and safeties brought in. No big surprises except for maybe safety, where there’s still a bit of a desire to add depth and youth, though this year’s class is weak.
The most-visited positions align with the Steelers’ needs, which also comes as no surprise.
Taking it a step further, let’s look at roughly the “buckets” of the draft the prospects are likely to be taken in: Round 1, Day 2, Day 3, or undrafted. There’s a bit more subjectivity here but I’ll use Mock Draft Database as my guide based on its aggregation rankings and projections.
Round 1: Nine – (Mitchell, Fautanu, Mims, Fuaga, Guyton, Barton, Powers-Johnson, DeJean, Wiggins)
Day 2: Ten – (Pearsall, Corley, Legette, Fisher, Fiske, Robinson, Smith, Wilson, Colson, Melton)
Day 3: Nine – (McCaffrey, Washington, Glover, Nourzad, McCormick, Boyd, Lee, Crumedy, Phillips)
Undrafted: Two – (Jones, Clayton)
Clayton doesn’t exist in the site’s database, but I put him in the UDFA camp, though he’s a potential late-round pick. Some of the others could be debated. Frazier and Robinson could go on Day 1 while I think Phillips goes Day 2 instead of the database’s fourth-round projection. But switch some names around and the results are generally the same. A pretty even split of names. A bit more concentrated toward Day 2, which makes sense and is probably pretty typical across the league, but the Steelers have cast a wide net throughout the draft.
Positionally, you can interpret the team taking an earlier-round lens on the offensive line, seven of the 12 brought in the Round 1 or 2 buckets. A Day 2 lens can be applied to wide receiver, corner, and inside linebacker while defensive line has a Day 2-Day 3 vibe.
And a quick look at Power Five vs non-Power Five interest.
Visits From Power Five: 24
Visits From Non-Power Five: 6
A heavy concentration from the “big” schools. Not unusual for the team and probably not that uncommon compared to the other 31 clubs, though I don’t have their data on hand.
Keep this list handy when making your final Steelers’ mock draft and throughout draft weekend. Several names who appear here will be putting on the Black and Gold one week from now.
