It’s early in the process, but the NFL Draft gives us a good idea of which players could make the Pittsburgh Steelers final roster in 2021.
The Steelers 2021 draft is in the books. While fans might disagree about where the Steelers elected to take a handful of their players, there’s no question that Pittsburgh entered the draft with the mindset that they needed to fill some big needs on offense.
The Steelers haven’t taken offensive players in the NFL Draft with their first three picks since 1995 when they drafted Mark Bruener, Kordell Stewart, and Brendan Stai, and we have to go all the way back to 1984 since they took four-straight offensive players to open the draft. However, that streak was tied in 2021, as Pittsburgh took Najee Harris, Pat Freiermuth, Kendrick Green, and Dan Moore with their first four picks.
Now that the draft is complete, we get a broad view of how Pittsburgh’s roster and depth chart might shape up for the 2021 season. Though it is early in the process, here is my first 53-man roster prediction for the Steelers this year:
Quarterbacks: Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph, Dwayne Haskins
Ben Roethlisberger took a pay cut to come back and play another season with the team. This will likely be his last. Despite his age (39) and drop-in play late in the 2020 season, Big Ben is the Steelers starter in 2020. After earning a one-year extension, you can pencil Mason Rudolph in as the team’s QB2 this year.
After these two, it gets really interesting. The Steelers were really high on Dwayne Haskins in the 2019 NFL Draft, so I have him getting the nod above Josh Dobbs. However, what he does on and off the field from now until the start of the season will influence Pittsburgh’s decision. More than likely, they will want to give Haskins a shot, but his cheap salary shows that he is not a roster lock this year. Personally, I still think Dobbs has more to work with.