The Pittsburgh Steelers were eerily well-prepared for the 2021 NFL draft.
As a lifelong fan of the Steelers, I am actually surprised at how well the Steelers mapped out the draft this year. I won’t lie that I was starting to sweat a little at the beginning of round 3, but it was all for naught. When making this list I was having a really hard time finding a bad pick.
Hindsight is 20/20 and in a year we’ll be able to look back and point out where things went wrong. However, there isn’t a particular pick that truly stands out as a clear error. I give Pittsburgh massive credit for aligning their needs with the best players available after their first two picks. That is something to be proud of, having a good feel for where a lot of players are at on other teams’ draft boards.
The worst pick of the draft
If I had to pick a selection that stands out as a somewhat bad selection, it is the 7th round selection of Tre Norwood. It isn’t that he doesn’t have talent. He just doesn’t look like a player that can do much in this situation. The Steelers ran a ton of man coverage over the past 2 seasons. Yet, Norwood’s biggest discrepancies were in man coverage.
He looked better as a Safety in a simplified role in 2020. Yet, I don’t see the fit. Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds are entrenched as the starters for good reason, and while it is nice to have depth, any cornerback in the draft with some man coverage ability left at this point would have been a better pickup. Like it or not, the Steelers are all in on James Pierre and I’m left unsure of who all will be behind him after the Justin Layne debacle plays out.
Tre Norwood: D-