One of the underrated needs for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2024 NFL Draft is along the defensive line. They have their starting lineup set with Cameron Heyward, Keeanu Benton, and Larry Ogunjobi, but need to add talent to the group for a future without Heyward or Ogunjobi. If it isn’t addressed this year, it will become the team’s top need in next year’s draft, and likely a pressing one if Heyward hangs up his pads after this season.
Bob McGinn has been publishing thoughts from NFL scouts around the league and covering the draft for 40 years, though he has kept the sources anonymous for the last decade. On Sunday morning, he published a piece on the Go Long substack on the defensive line class. One of the comparisons a scout made is sure going to pique the interest of Steelers fans.
“I like Byron [Murphy’s] tape better than Ed Oliver’s,” McGinn wrote via an anonymous scout. “He can play 3-[technique] or nose. As good a motor as you’ll see on an interior player…He’s going to be like Casey Hampton. I don’t know if he’s as strong as Casey Hampton, but he sure looks like it. Hampton was a nose tackle, but he had movement skills, too. This kid has unbelievable movement skills.”
At 6004, 297 pounds, Murphy has a little less sand in his pants than Hampton did, and true 0-tech nose tackles get a little less burn in today’s game. Murphy is the modern version of Hampton, according to that scout. He should be one of the first defensive players off the board in what should be an offense-dominated first round on Thursday.
The Steelers have more of a need at DE, in a player who can play more 5-tech with the ability to kick inside to 3-tech. There just aren’t that many players who fit that description in this draft class.
“There’s a bunch of good players, but they’re all really short in stature,” one scout said.
One player who has the requisite length to fit in the Steelers’ scheme is Missouri DL Darius Robinson, but he has a separate issue of perhaps being a little too light and is better suited for edge duties or DE in an even front.
“This sucker might have the highest ceiling in the whole draft,” a scout said of Robinson. “He can win outside with a 4.97 40 because he can kick your ass. He’s got enough get-off. He’ll win because he’s got 34-inch arms and [big] hands…I can’t see him playing inside at all. He’s too stiff to be an every-down 5-technique.”
The Steelers brought him in for a pre-draft visit, so there is clearly some interest there, but if they agree on the evaluation of not holding up inside as a 5-tech DE, then he likely won’t be a fit in Pittsburgh. Still, he has a ton of potential and the body type that just doesn’t come around very often. For what it’s worth, he told me at the Senior Bowl and again at the NFL Scouting Combine that he believes he can play anywhere along the defensive line.
Darius Robinson Scouting Report
Another pre-draft visitor, LSU’s Maason Smith, has everything the Steelers look for. At 6051, 306 pounds, and with 35-inch arms, he has the mass and the length to hold up all along the defensive front. He is young, and perhaps a bit unrefined due to missing time with an ACL injury in 2022, but he could be just the prospect to draft and develop for the future.
“Has the same body type and is the type of athlete that Chris Jones is. He’s just not that level player. Plays like a freshman,” one scout told McGinn. “He’s big. He’s got range. But I can’t wait to see the team that takes him. I think he stinks.”
Smith was not overly productive in college, and LSU’s DL coach changed multiple times while he was playing there. Still, he has the athletic profile, and some flashes on tape that make you think he can be a better NFL player than he was a college player. His measurables and testing numbers actually compare pretty favorably to former Steelers DL Stephon Tuitt. Those body types don’t come around often.
If the Steelers want to address the defensive line, it is tough to say how early or late that pick may come. They have met with prospects ranging from projected first-round picks to late-round flyers like Jaden Crumedy and Khristian Boyd. Of the three I listed above, Smith has the best chance to become a Steeler, but will he last far enough into the draft where it would be fair value to take him?
