Steelers mock draft: Still Curtain crew makes their final mock draft predictions

The Steelers have the biggest weekend of the year ahead of them. Here’s what our contributors have Pittsburgh doing in the 2021 NFL Draft. 

It’s been quite the offseason so far. Ben Roethlisberger was willing to play another season on a reduced salary in 2021, and many of Pittsburgh’s offseason decisions have been based on his return. While some quality football players like Bud Dupree and Mike Hilton are no longer with the team, the Steelers were able to retain a select few like JuJu Smith-Schuster and Cameron Sutton this offseason.

Now, we are all poised to plant ourselves in front of the couch for the next three days and observe how things unfold in the 2021 NFL Draft. Our team at Still Curtain has been working diligently to study potential draft prospects for the Steelers and to track the organization’s every move this offseason.

With the NFL Draft just hours away, our team of contributors has made their official predictions for Pittsburgh in each round. Here’s what we came up with:

Writers in agreeance that Steelers will take RB early

Though it may not be the direction that some of us are hoping Pittsburgh goes with the 24th pick, you can see that most of our writers agree they will take a running back early in the draft. Going a bit against the norm, three of our writers (including myself) have the Steelers taking Travis Etienne – not Najee Harris – with their first selection.

While there has certainly been more buzz around Harris potentially going to the Steelers this offseason, there’s also seems to be a higher chance that he’s off the board by this point. Additionally, my reasoning behind the Etienne selection is because, outside of his average size, he checks more boxes than Harris. Etienne is a younger player who tested as a 91st percentile athlete, according to his Relative Athletic Score and has the homerun speed that this team has desperately been missing.

In round two, nearly all of us have the Steelers addressing the offensive line with Quinn Meinerz, Jalen Mayfield, or Creed Humphrey. As it stands, this is probably a pretty safe bet – especially if the team does indeed go running back in the first.

There was no consensus with our third-round picks this year. I have the Steelers running to the podium for Tommy Tremble if he falls to this pick, but collectively, we have a tight end, edge defender, offensive lineman, linebacker, and even a quarterback being in play for this selection.

On day three, there are a few names that pop up more than once on our mock drafts. Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade makes a lot of sense due to his ability to play nickel cornerback and Mike Tomlin is clearly a fan of the football program, while Drake Jackson could be a potential fallback option if the Steelers miss out on a center in the first few rounds.

You’ll notice that we didn’t stray far from the book here and that most of the players listed in our mock draft above have been names that the Steelers have met with this offseason (either in person or virtually). It will be interesting to see if Pittsburgh really is on the same page as the media when it comes to their team needs where they will target positions in each round of the NFL Draft.