7th round: Michael Warren II
Running back, Cincinnati
Michael Warren is a late-round running back from Cincinnati, but he has a lot of the traits Pittsburgh desires at the position. For starters, he’s 226 pounds with a thick frame to carry the load. Though he only did the bench press at the Combine (16 reps), Warren is a powerful runner up the middle who still is able to bounce the ball outside when needed. He’s also just a 21-year old junior.
This scenario may be a little hard to envision because we don’t know exactly what that means for Jalen Samuels, but I can see Pittsburgh moving him to more of an H-back role that will be more involved as a receiver than a runner.
Running back is a position I’m betting the Steelers would like to add earlier in the draft, but if they can find a way to keep Samuels involved on offense, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they take one late on day three.
While we have a better idea of Pittsburgh’s draft plans, we still won’t know exactly which direction they are leaning until their second-round pick roll around. What they do early will shape the direction they go for the rest of the draft.