Will the Pittsburgh Steelers ultimately select a wide receiver in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft? It’s hard to say for sure if they will or won’t, with roughly two weeks left before the 2024 NFL Draft takes place in Detroit, Michigan. But even so, it’s a big position of need for the team this offseason just the same. If, however, the Steelers do wind up selecting a wide receiver in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, their doing so will be a huge story as it will break a very long streak in the process.
The last time that the Steelers selected a wide receiver in the first round of an NFL Draft was in 2006. That player was WR Santonio Holmes out of Ohio State, and the Steelers selected him 25th overall that year. Holmes was the first and only wide receiver to be selected in the first round of that 2006 NFL Draft, and the Steelers traded up with the New York Giants from the 32nd overall spot to pick him.
How unusual is it for the Steelers to now have gone 17 consecutive drafts without selecting a wide receiver in the first round? Well, since that 2006 selection of Holmes at 25th overall, only one other team in the NFL has failed to select at least one wide receiver in the first round of an NFL Draft. That one other team is the Green Bay Packers, who last selected a wide receiver (Javon Walker) in the first round of an NFL Draft back in 2002.
To emphasize the Steelers’ streak even more, 30 of the 32 NFL teams have selected at least one wide receiver in the first round of an NFL Draft since 2011. That’s quite a streak statistic for both the Steelers and the Packers.
Overall, the Steelers really don’t have a huge history when it comes to selecting wide receivers in the first round of an NFL Draft. In fact, in the Super Bowl era, which started in 1966, and not counting supplemental drafts, the Steelers have only selected a WR in the first round of an NFL Draft just seven times in total. Prior to 1999, only four wide receivers had been selected by the Steelers in the first round of an NFL Draft since 1966. That list of seven obviously includes some memorable names, with Hall of Famer Lynn Swann leading the list.
Currently, the Steelers own the 20th overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft and that’s not a spot they have a lot of history picking from. In fact, they have only selected from the 20th overall position twice in the Super Bowl era, with the most recent time being in 2022 (QB Kenny Pickett). Prior to Pickett in 2022, 1985 (DL Darryl Sims) was the only other time in the Super Bowl era that the Steelers made a draft selection at 20th overall.
As alluded to earlier in this post, the Steelers appear destined to select a wide receiver at some point during the first three rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft, as it is a huge position of need this year. Up until the time of this post being published, the Steelers have visited with, or have scheduled pre-draft visits with, six wide receivers. That list of wide receivers includes Adonai Mitchell, Xavier Legette, Ricky Pearsall, Malachi Corley, Tahj Washington, and Luke McCaffrey. Of those six, however, Mitchell is probably the one with the best chance of being selected in the first round this year.
Personally, I will be surprised if the Steelers select a wide receiver at 20th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. Even if they were to ultimately trade back in the first round, which is something they haven’t done since 2001, I would still be a bit shocked if they did so with the intent of selecting a wide receiver. My speculation aside, should the Steelers ultimately wind up selecting a wide receiver anywhere in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, doing so will be big news in and of itself.
Streaks, as we all know, were made to be broken at some point. Will 2024 be the year that this particular drafting streak ends for the Steelers? We’ll have our answer to that question in a little more than two weeks from now.
