The Pittsburgh Steelers have a number of needs to fill to become a contender, and a lot of the team’s work will be done in the 2025 NFL Draft. Hitting on their picks will be important for the Steelers to develop a stable of talent, and they might have to take risks to do so. Three players that the Steelers have been linked to were named high-risk, high-reward prospects by PFF. CB Benjamin Morrison, QB Jalen Milroe and QB Jaxson Dart were among the 10 prospects listed.
Morrison will enter the draft coming off a hip injury, but prior to that he was one of the draft’s top cornerbacks. In six games in 2024, Morrison had 20 tackles and four passes defensed, but prior to 2024, he was an elite cornerback. He had three interceptions and 10 passes defensed in 2023 and three interceptions with four passes defensed in 2022, and he’s expected to be a first-round pick in April. The concern with Morrison is the injury, as Dalton Wasserman writes that he’s a risky pick given that there are questions about whether he can regain the mobility he had pre-injury.
“Across his first two seasons, Morrison earned a 90.4 PFF coverage grade, which put him in the neighborhood of elite players like Devon Witherspoon and Cooper DeJean. He’s as talented a man coverage cornerback as there is in this class, with a skill set similar to Kamari Lassiter of the Houston Texans. The big question will be more so about his long-term mobility coming off surgery than his talent.”
Wasserman also notes that Morrison’s 68.4 PFF coverage grade that he had prior to the injury was the lowest of his career. With the Steelers having a need at cornerback opposite Joey Porter Jr., Morrison is a name that’s been linked to the team in the first round, but the Steelers are going to have to be comfortable with his medicals for that to be the case.
The next two names are both quarterbacks that are likely going to fall out of the first round in Milroe and Dart, although Field Yates did have Dart mocked to the Steelers at No. 21 in his latest mock draft, with Mel Kiper Jr. disagreeing with the selection. Milroe’s physical tools are certainly intriguing, but he needs work as a passer, and Wasserman writes that his flaws as a passer may be too much to overcome.
“Perhaps an NFL team can develop his immense talent behind the scenes and turn him into a dynamic starter, but he seems just as likely to be unable to overcome his flaws as a passer.”
As for Dart, Wasserman argues that he played well against bad defensive teams, and his downfield passing may not translate to the next level. The Steelers are likely taking a quarterback in this draft, although probably not in the first round, and Dart and Milroe are both options that have been linked with the team this draft cycle. Neither are surefire starters, but with where Pittsburgh is targeting a quarterback, they’re likely looking for more of a developmental option.
While Dart and Milroe both will need a lot of work, the Steelers could do worse than either of them if they’re looking for a Day 2 quarterback option they could try and mold into a future starter.
