Cleveland messes everything up and allows Watt to fall
While the Steelers could thank a myriad of teams for selecting different edge rushers before they picked in 2017, no team is more deserving of this than the Browns. There are a plethora of reasons the team should thank the Browns for how they’ve drafted (their abysmal drafts have left them at the bottom of the AFC North for quite some time). In 2017, they decided to jump ahead of the Steelers in order to select TE David Njoku, which allowed for the team to select T.J. Watt with the following pick.
Now, there is no guarantee that the Steelers would have selected Njoku over Watt (there were reports that they were enamored with Njoku though). The key here is that Cleveland traded with Green Bay, who reportedly ready to take Watt in the first but figured they could get him with the Browns pick in the second. Had Cleveland not traded up, more than likely the Steelers wouldn’t have even had a choice and Watt would have stayed in Wisconsin.
If that wasn’t enough, Cleveland also missed out on some of the top QBs like Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson in favor of DeShone Kizer in the second. Sure, they landed Myles Garrett, but missing out on the top QB in the NFL as well as trading up so the Steelers can land Watt makes them the biggest draft relief for the team over the past ten years. Seriously, we owe them a fruit basket or something after what they did for them in 2017.
The Steelers have seen their fair share of draft success over the past few years, but some of these were controversial at the time. As well, some wouldn’t have happened if some other teams had thought differently during the draft process. All in all, though, the Steelers had had their fair share of draft reliefs over the past ten years.