The Pittsburgh Steelers head into the NFL draft on Thursday after an active free agency period where the team added Patrick Queen at linebacker and Russell Wilson at quarterback, along with DeShon Elliott at safety and other depth pieces at wide receiver. Because of the work that the Steelers did in free agency, head coach Mike Tomlin said during a pre-draft press conference that the Steelers aren’t “overly thirsty” for any particular position.
“I’m also excited about our draft because of just the quality work we’ve been able to get done in free agency. There’s two means by which we develop our football team for 2024 that goes with existing talent, that’s free agency and the draft and we’ve been very active in free agency and that makes you really comfortable as you lean in on draft weekend that we’ve addressed a lot of needs and we don’t feel overly thirsty in any one area and I just think that’s a good feel as you go into the weekend,” Tomlin said Monday via the Steelers’ YouTube channel.
While the Steelers certainly still have needs — and one room they haven’t added to in free agency thus far has been the offensive line — the team added enough quality depth where it may not need to hone in on certain positions the way it seemed ahead of free agency. By bringing in Dean Lowry and re-signing Montravius Adams, defensive line is less of a need than it once was whereas signing Van Jefferson and Quez Watkins gives the team some depth at receiver so they may not need to double up at the position after trading Diontae Johnson, although a legitimate second option is still a need.
The same goes for inside linebacker after signing Queen, but the lack of attention to the offensive line coupled with Tomlin’s comments make it sound as if that could be an area the team addresses early in the draft. At center, Nate Herbig is currently slated to start, and it’s a class where the Steelers can find themselves a starting center if that’s the route they go. Tomlin isn’t saying the team doesn’t have needs, but the Steelers mitigated some of those needs and put themselves in a position where they can give some positions more priority than others due to the work they did in free agency.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Steelers attack the draft with them building their roster like a win-now team, and we’ll see just how they go about addressing their remaining needs while balancing some of the positions where it may not be as much of a priority as it seemed to be just over a month ago.
