2021 NFL Draft visit tracker shows who Steelers might take with 24th overall pick

Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert have clearly had their eyes on a few prospects this year. Here’s who the Steelers could likely take first in the NFL Draft. 

It’s a game of chess, not checkers. At least that’s the popular misconception when it comes to NFL general managers and coaches prior to the NFL Draft. While most would deem it wise to attempt to conceal a team’s interests in certain prospects from the rest of the league, most front office personnel make no effort to do so. The Steelers are as guilty of this as any team in the league.

While there have been dozens of players mocked to Pittsburgh with the 24th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the reality is that we can narrow this selection down to just a handful of players. If you have been keeping track of Tomlin and Colbert’s Pro Day visits and pre-draft player meetings in years past, you would know that they almost always select a player in the first round that they have visibly shown extensive interest in during the offseason.

Through reports, live Pro Day practices, and social media snapshots, we were able to find out which schools Pittsburgh’s brass visited with this often and which players received virtual visits. While having either a Pro Day visit or a virtual visit is enough to put a player on the Steelers radar early in the draft, a combination of the two shows that the team has a special level of interest. Here are the players that Tomlin and Colbert met with at their Pro Days as well as the players who received virtual visits from the Steelers this offseason:

Who is most likely to be Steelers selection at pick 24?

Based on the information gathered, it pains me to say that a pair of running backs appear to be the most likely selections Pittsburgh could make with the 24th overall pick this year. Both Najee Harris and Travis Etienne met with the Steelers at their respective Pro Days and received virtual visits with the team.

While both are widely regarded as the top-two running backs in the 2021 draft class, there is a belief that the Steelers could favor Harris over Etienne due to his size (6’1 3/8”, 232 pounds) and ability to operate as a receiver and pass protector.

In addition, Florida State cornerback, Asante Samuel Jr. meets all of the criteria to be a first-round pick by the Steelers at the end of the month, as he received a similar amount of attention from the team this offseason. Samuel is undersized, but he’s a smooth mover with the grittiness and family bloodlines Pittsburgh desires (his father was a former first-team All-Pro cornerback who played for the Patriots and Eagles).

Likewise, Ohio State linebacker Baron Browning, Alabama center Landon Dickerson, and Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth are three other players that check all of the boxes; however, there are draft analysts who think that taking one of these three with the 24th pick would be a reach.

This isn’t a foolproof model to use when it comes to the Steelers in the NFL Draft, but it gives us a terrific idea of where their interests lie.  What we have come to know is that Pittsburgh really does need to either meet with a player virtually or at their Pro Day to be a possible first-round selection, and I’d be shocked if they went with someone outside of this list.