It’s not often the Steelers catch all other 31 NFL teams asleep at the wheel. In the second round of the draft, they did precisely that.
As the 55th selection, nearly everyone assumed Pittsburgh would take any of the remaining offensive linemen on the draft board, Jalen Mayfield was available; even Creed Humphrey was still undrafted. Then Franco Harris came to the podium to announce the Steelers selection with the 55th pick. He Called out Pat Freiermuth, tight end from Penn State. The selection caught many teams and analysts by surprise.
Steelers analyst Mike Prisuta was a bit surprised by this selection. He seemed confident the Steelers would look at a tight end; he didn’t think they would draft one at the second selection. On the NFL Radio, one of the talk show hosts seriously expected the Steelers to take one of the available centers. Yet the Steelers chose the best tight end on the board. No doubt the selection seemed surprising, and on the other hand, the Steelers sandbagged the entire NFL.
Some projected Freiermuth as a late first-round selection. The Jaguars had considered him, and perhaps had Travis Etienne not been available, they might have selected him in the first round on the 25th selection. Then he fell through to the second round. It would seem that most teams assumed he would stay on the board through the 60th selection or possibly the early 3rd round. So no one rushed to select him sooner. Then the Steelers made their selection and took the second-highest-rated tight end in the 2021 draft, punking all of the other teams that may have been considering him. The rest of the NFL was lulled into the false sense of security that the Steelers would select a tackle or center with their second selection. A decision they may regret in 2021.