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Tight ends the Steelers should draft and avoid in 2020

By Edward Hunt

BOCA RATON, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 30: Harrison Bryant #40 of the Florida Atlantic Owls catches his third touchdown against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in the second half at FAU Stadium on November 30, 2019 in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 30: Harrison Bryant #40 of the Florida Atlantic Owls catches his third touchdown against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in the second half at FAU Stadium on November 30, 2019 in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /
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Heading into the NFL Draft, here are some tight ends that the Steelers should keep their eyes on, and others they should avoid altogether.

The Steelers signed Eric Ebron to a two-year, $12 million dollar contract. That is a sign that the Steelers would like to roll out a 1-2 punch at tight end. Ebron was a Pro Bowler in 2018 and the Steelers would like him to get back to that form in 2020.

Pittsburgh now has two tight ends that are of starting quality, and that means they can start using more 12-personnel (one running backs with two tight ends) in passing situations. Despite the league’s 30th ranked offense just a season ago, this is turning into a very quarterback friendly offense for Ben Roethlisberger.

The caveat to all this is that both of their top two tight ends are injury-prone, and there’s a chance that one of the two might have to do the brunt of the tight end work for this team. There is a scenario I could see where the Steelers may even have to rely on their #3 tight end because their top two can’t stay on the field.

Zach Gentry was a fifth-round pick last year, but I don’t think he will be ready to be the tight end if Ebron and Vance McDonald go down. He is still a work in progress and was a healthy scratch for the Steelers on many occasions last year.

The Steelers like to draft the best player available because you never know which position will have a lot of injuries. It might be necessary to draft a tight end to aide against their injury worries for Ebron and McDonald.

In this article, I’d like to talk about which tight ends I like and the ones that I don’t. This is intended to give fans a perspective on whether to like or dislike a draft pick if the Steelers select a tight end.

One trend I notice in the media is that all the picks will be touted as good because the Steelers have a history of drafting well. The problem is that the Steelers do not hit on all their picks and so there are situations where the Steelers will miss.

All of my assessments are based on watching college film on the players. I have a good idea of where the player’s strengths and weaknesses are at this point. Here’s what I came up with:

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