The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted two more players for pre-draft visits on Thursday, now exactly two weeks away from the 2024 NFL Draft. Per the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Joe Rutter, the team brought in Oklahoma OT Tyler Guyton and Northern Iowa DT Khristian Boyd to the facility today.
Guyton was a previously unreported name on the team’s visit list, while Boyd’s has been known and scheduled for several weeks. Guyton is regarded as a top athlete in a deep tackle class. A huge body at 6080, 322 pounds with 34 1/4-inch arms, he started ten games at right tackle in 2023 for the Sooners. According to our Guyton scouting report, he’s a former tight end with fluid movement but needs to become functionally stronger. Our final evaluation was a mixed bag, focusing on his upside but also on technical areas he must refine.
“Tyler Guyton is made in the mold of what you want your offensive tackle to look like at the NFL level. He’s big, long, physical, and athletic, having the capability of excelling as a blocker in space as well as near the line of scrimmage. He needs to clean up his hand placement consistency as well as work on playing with better hip and knee bend to have better leverage. But given that Guyton is still pretty raw when it comes to the position as well as starting experience, it’s fair to suggest that he will only continue to develop with his ceiling being higher than the player he is now.”
Pittsburgh has brought in several offensive linemen in this year’s draft, focusing primarily on offensive tackles.
Boyd is a small schooler the team’s shown interest in. An injury hampered his pre-draft process, not allowing him to work out at his initial Pro Day. He held a workout earlier this week at Iowa alongside Hawkeyes’ CB Cooper Dejean. Boyd’s numbers were poor, though the injury likely hindered his ability to train. Our scouting report on him concluded:
“Khristian Boyd is a stout, explosive defensive lineman that does his best penetrating gaps and getting upfield to put pressure on opposing blockers. He has played head-up on the center as well as in the gaps during his time in college, having the frame and size to play in the middle if asked to do so. Still, the lack of ideal length as well as his tendencies to not always play to his physical strength likely make Boyd a better fit as a 4-3 gap penetrating defensive tackle at the next level rather than a pure 3-4 nose tackle to best utilize his strengths as a pass rusher and run defender.”
According to the Senior Bowl’s Jimy Nagy, Boyd weighed in at 6025, 325 pounds, with 31 5/8-inch arms. He didn’t run a 40 and put up a 4.91 short shuttle and 8.10 three-cone, both poor numbers even for the position.
The Steelers have also brought in several defensive linemen for pre-draft visits, showing a clear focus on upgrading the trenches on both sides of the ball in the draft.
He’s likely a Day Three selection, potentially falling into the latter half of Saturday due to competition concerns and poor testing. We now know 26 of the Steelers’ allotted 30 pre-draft visits, excluding local prospects who don’t count against the team’s total.
