5 questionable draft trends the Pittsburgh Steelers must rethink

Only take juniors in round one

Now, I must say that this isn’t a draft trend that the Steelers necessarily follow to a tee. When their need is desperate enough, we have seen them stray from this before in the first round. The most recent example of this is when they took Jarvis Jones with the 17th overall pick in 2013. While this pick clearly didn’t work out in Pittsburgh’s favor, they have had much success straying from this draft trend in the past.

In the two years prior to busting on Jones, the Steelers found incredible success drafting seniors in the first round with Cameron Heyward (2011) and David DeCastro (2012). In fact, both former college seniors went on to be multiple-time first-team All-Pros and cornerstone players to the Steelers.

Most of the time, I would agree with the logic behind drafting underclassmen early. If juniors or redshirt sophomores are able to dominate the collegiate game at such a young age they typically find a way to have success in the NFL. However, we have seen this recipe fail too often in the past to make this a draft trend that Pittsburgh should stick to in the future. Especially in a year like 2020, the Steelers need to be open to drafting a senior in round one, but they haven’t done so in seven years.