Now that the Super Bowl is in the rearview mirror, it is draft season across the NFL landscape. Though free agency is the first thing on the horizon from a roster-building perspective in a little over a month, the NFL Draft is the big driver moving forward.
ESPN’s Field Yates released his latest mock draft Tuesday morning, taking a look at team needs and potential fits in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay.
Within Yates’ mock draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers addressed a major need, landing a quarterback in the first round, marking one of three quarterbacks selected in the first round of Yates’ mock draft.
That first-round quarterback? Ole Miss standout Jaxson Dart.
“Yes, free agents Russell Wilson or Justin Fields could be back. But the Steelers’ pedestrian offense has held them back from playoff success in recent seasons, and Dart had a prolific college career,” Yates writes. “Over the past two seasons, he has 7,633 passing yards, 51 touchdown throws and 11 interceptions. He’s a capable thrower to all levels of the field and has enough mobility to operate outside the pocket and on the run. Dart also took advantage of Senior Bowl week with a strong showing in front of Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin, who was on the field at each practice.
“This projection represents a big rise up the board from where Dart currently ranks outside my top 32, but quarterbacks always have a chance to climb given positional value. Keep an eye on Dart here as we get closer to April.”
Though it’s widely considered a relatively weak quarterback class with only two franchise-caliber signal callers in Miami (Fla.)’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Dart is a guy who is starting to generate more and more buzz, much like Yates writes.
He had a nice showing at the Senior Bowl in Mobile in early February, and brings a great resume from the college level in the SEC.
Dart measured in at 6017, 226 pounds at the Senior Bowl. He also measured 9 1/2-inch hands, 30 1/4-inch arms and a wingspan of 72 3/4 inches. That’s a solid frame overall at the quarterback position in today’s NFL.
Not only that, he put up some impressive stats during his time in Oxford. In three seasons with the Rebels, Dart threw for 10,617 yards and 72 touchdowns, throwing just 22 interceptions. He completed 65.7 percent of his passes under head coach Lane Kiffin and added another 1,498 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns in his three seasons.
He earned first-team All-SEC in 2024 and was named the Gator Bowl MVP in his final game with Ole Miss.
Dart has some good moments on tape and some jaw-dropping throws, but as Steelers Depot’s Alex Kozora wrote in his scouting report of the Rebels star, he does a lot of things well but doesn’t have any elite traits. That’s not exactly a quarterback you want to take a chance on in the first round, especially in a poor QB class.
That’s how you wind up with a Kenny Pickett-type QB again, which clearly wasn’t what the Steelers wanted.
While the position is a massive need for the Black and Gold, they can’t be desperate, either. Swinging and missing on a QB in the first round for the second time in four drafts could set them back even further than they already are.
