With the 119th selection of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected South Dakota State OG Mason McCormick. It’s the third offensive lineman the team has taken.
A guard with a ton of experience, 70 career games, McCormick brings good size as well. He weighed in at 6042, 309 pounds with nearly 34-inch arms. At the NFL Scouting Combine, he jumped 35.5 inches in the vert, 9’9″ in the broad, and ran a 5.15 40-yard dash.
The Steelers brought in McCormick for a pre-draft visit, a running theme throughout GM Omar Khan’s second draft.
Our scouting report from Joe Clark highlighted McCormick’s strength and desire to play through the whistle. He showed good awareness against blitzes and stunts and was a top-tier run blocker at the FCS level. On the negatives, McCormick struggled to hit a moving target in space and needs to be more aggressive in pass protection.
Our report summed him up this way:
“Overall, I did like a lot of what I saw out of Mason McCormick, but despite his extensive collegiate experience, there are still areas for him to improve as he goes from the FCS to the NFL. He’s definitely better as a run blocker than a pass blocker, but a lot of his flaws in pass pro are fixable. He’s likely best suited for an inside run scheme in the NFL.
His issues pulling and playing in space came up a little too often on tape for me to think they’re going to go away completely, but his power in the run game and hand usage to combat pass rush moves still gives him a high floor for what he could be in the NFL.
He’s almost exclusively played at left guard in his collegiate career, and he has the traits that could make him an NFL starter one day. For my comp, I’m going to go with former Jets and Vikings guard Dakota Dozier, as someone with similar size who entered the NFL as an FCS prospect who was better as a run blocker and a pass blocker and developed into a starter in the league.”
Barring a trade, the Steeles will pick twice more today. Without a fifth-round selection, they’ll wait until the sixth round at No. 178 and No. 195. They do not currently have a seventh-round pick.
Check out our scouting report on Mason McCormick below.
