4 players Steelers are unlikely to take in NFL Draft after recent signings
By Tommy Jaggi
The Steelers recently re-signed Vince Williams and Josh Dobbs. Here are four players who may no longer be on their radar in the 2021 NFL Draft.
There’s nothing quite like a few pre-draft signings that could prove to shake up Pittsburgh’s draft board this April. After being mostly quiet since cutting ties with Steven Nelson, the Steelers recently re-signed both linebacker Vince Williams and quarterback Joshua Dobbs within a few hours of each other on Wednesday.
With Williams and Dobbs returning to the team, the Steelers got a sudden and unexpected boost in depth at inside linebacker and quarterback before the 2021 NFL Draft. This makes things interesting. While it was a long shot that they would have moved up for a quarterback in the first round, taking a linebacker at pick 24 seemed like a real possibility before these moves. Now I’m not so sure.
In a closing Super Bowl window, Pittsburgh is likely to take a position of need rather than one they have made an effort to fill this offseason. Here are four players who the Steelers are unlikely to take in the NFL Draft after their recent signings:
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, LB, Notre Dame
This one really disappoints me, as Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was a player I was really hoping the Steelers would fall in love with. At 6’1 1/2” and 221 pounds, the Notre Dame linebacker wouldn’t have been an ideal fit alongside Devin Bush in Pittsburgh’s defense, but his playmaking ability and position flexibility could have made him a Swiss Army knife on Pittsburgh’s defense. Owusu-Koramoah has the skillset to play both linebacker and strong safety, and he can even handle some duties covering slot receivers.
Unfortunately, the signing of Vince Williams makes a pick like this seem incredibly unlikely, as J.O.K. would no doubt have to be claimed at pick 24 if the Steelers wanted a chance at him (that’s assuming he even makes it there). While I once thought that this was a plausable selection, it seems like we can almost wave goodbye to any chance of this happening now.