Different teams and general managers have varying philosophies when it comes to the NFL draft. Do you draft for need to give yourself the best chance of winning in the short term and pass up on players that you have rated higher? Or do you draft the best player available to give your team the most talent possible but risk leaving holes on the roster? For the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2024 Draft, they got the best of both worlds.
“Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian often said, [if] great player, need match for your pick, that guy’s got a chance to be a good player for you,” Charles Davis said in a clip from Path to the Draft posted on NFL.com. “Let’s talk about Omar Khan and what he did in Pittsburgh because need and great players really matched up.
“Troy Fautanu out of Washington, a left tackle in the first round. They’ve wanted to get better at that position. They nailed a good one in the second round – Zach Frazier, the center out of West Virginia…They needed a player to step in – Zach Frazier, terrific matchup. How about Roman Wilson, wide receiver? A position of need for the Steelers. A lot of guys not there anymore. This kid can flat-out fly.”
The first three picks couldn’t have gone much better for the Steelers. Six tackles came off the board before pick No. 20 in the first round, and still, the Steelers got one of their highest-rated players in Fautanu. GM Omar Khan said after the draft that he was the top guy on their board regardless of position. They even called him before they were on the clock to try to determine if others were going to trade up for him.
Khan also said he didn’t think Frazier would be there in the second round, and they were weighing options to move up and get him. Reports indicated that the team was going to use their second-round pick on Roman Wilson if Frazier wasn’t available, and they ended up getting him in the third round 33 picks later.
All three of those picks presented great value, and they filled three of the Steelers’ four biggest needs. Their other biggest need, cornerback, didn’t receive help until their last pick of the draft in the sixth round. But when it would have been time to address that need with their second pick of the third round, they chose value in LB Payton Wilson instead of reaching for a corner. The next CB to come off the board was ten picks later in Khyree Jackson, but Wilson has the skills and tape of a first or second-round pick if not for the injury concerns.
“They missed on Devin Bush a few years ago, been trying to get it right. Payton Wilson outta North Carolina State, a tackling machine who broke all the former Pittsburgh head coach in Bill Cowher’s records at NC State,” Davis said. “He steps right in to play right in the inside next to new acquisition, Patrick Queen.”
The trade up in 2019 for Devin Bush represents what can happen when you aggressively chase a need instead of trying to find value. They gave up a lot to go up and get him, and it didn’t work out. It set the franchise back in many ways.
If you look at the draft class last year, Khan’s first one in charge, there was also a lot of value and need intersecting, and many of those players went on to make a meaningful impact in year one. If you subscribe to Polian’s line of thinking, Khan knocked this draft class out of the park.
