The Steelers seemingly found a few gems in this draft class, but these three prospects were not as good of values as some of the other selections in the 2021 draft.
While the Steelers draft class as a whole seems solid, there were some picks that stood out as not being great values. To be clear upfront, just because a player is a bad value does not mean they are not a bad prospect. While that can certainly be the case, other times a good prospect is taken from a position that doesn’t have as much value as others or should have been taken later in the draft. Take Terrell Edmunds as an example; he was a fine prospect coming out of college but was not a value pick given his draft rating. That hasn’t stopped him from being a fine starter though. With all of that said, here are the Steelers’ three worst value picks from the 2021 NFL draft.
Najee Harris
The reason I emphasized the point above is because it rings true (in my opinion at least) for Najee Harris. Without a doubt, he is a good-looking running back prospect, but the position has been so devalued in recent years and the team had so many other holes to fill that taking Harris represented bad value. While I fully expect him to have a good rookie season (he better given his draft status), that doesn’t change the fact that Harris wasn’t a great value.
The only way Harris can end up being considered a good value pick is if he becomes a Derrick Henry type of running back. That means no matter what line he is running behind and no matter what scheme is drawn up to stop him, he still finds a way to look like the best back in the league. If Harris does that, then he would be worth the value in the first round. If he doesn’t, then taking a running back was not good value for the Steelers here. Once again, he looks like a fine prospect, just not a good value.