When the Steelers were picking at 66 with the first of their 3rd round draft choices, I was standing up and pacing around the room. I studied a lot of film this off-season, and I was really high on Michigan pass rusher, Chase Winovich.
After they announced the pick, I was astonished Pittsburgh was willing to pass on a edge defender with Bud Dupree in a contract year and no heir apparent to him.
This got me thinking: what if the Steelers are higher on Olasunkanmi Adeniyi than we think. For those of you who don’t remember, Ola (as many of us fans have come to call him) was quite possibly the biggest preseason standout for the Steelers in 2018. At just 20-years old to begin his rookie season, Adeniyi impressed with an eye-popping 3.0 sacks and 2 forced fumbles in just 4 preseason games.
What’s more impressive is that Adeniyi was able to be productive on a relatively small number of snaps in the preseason.
Ola is not overly impressive from a size and athleticism standpoint. He’s just a shade over 6’1” and 248 pounds with less than 32” arms. However, it was his leverage and power on film that made many Steelers fans liken him to James Harrison – one of the all-time greats in Pittsburgh.
In college, Adeniyi posted an astonishing 20.0 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks as a true junior at Toledo. That kind of production is hard to ignore.
With age on his side and the Steelers electing to forego the edge position in the draft this year (assuming they view Sutton Smith as an inside linebacker at the next level), perhaps the Steelers have a higher opinion of Ola Adeniyi than we give them credit for.
All of Adeniyi’s production came in the preseason. However, it is interesting to note that the former undrafted edge rusher was able to dress for 5 games towards the end of the season this year.
The Steelers electing to pass on Chase Winovich or Christian Miller might not mean anything. However, Ola was a guy they appeared to be high on last year before he was placed on the injured reserve list to start the season. Perhaps the Steelers view Adeniyi as a solid rotational piece on the edge in 2019.