The Steelers may have been too focused on filling needs in the NFL Draft. Here are their four biggest reaches.
The Pittsburgh Steelers certainly had an agenda in the 2021 NFL Draft. For the first time since 1984, the organization took four straight offensive players to begin the NFL Draft. This may have had something to do with the Pittsburgh’s 32nd ranked rushing attack or the overall monumental collapse of the offense over the final six games and into the playoffs.
I don’t judge the Steelers motives for selecting players of need in the NFL Draft. However, when taking for need causes you to ignore significantly better players on the board – oftentimes at more important positions – that’s where I have an issue. All teams are guilty of this, and we will have to take a wait-and-see approach to observe whether or not this will work out for Pittsburgh, but here are the Steelers four biggest reaches of the 2021 NFL Draft:
4. OT Dan Moore Jr.
I really like Dan Moore, but to be honest, he went a little higher than I expected him to go. There’s no doubt that the Steelers needed an offensive tackle, and I’m somewhat surprised they waited this long to address the position. Kevin Colbert missed out on the first two tiers of offensive tackle talent, but I still had players like D’Ante Smith, Stone Forsythe, and Jaylon Moore ranked higher.
The Steelers are really putting a lot of faith in Chukwuma Okorafor and Zach Banner this year. Okorafor graded out as one of the worst tackles in the league last season, while Banner is coming off an ACL tear and has just two starts by the age of 27. Had they addressed this position a little sooner, perhaps they could have gotten a player who could step in and play at some point during his rookie season. I like Dan Moore, and he has great upside thanks to his impressive athletic traits. But even considering this, I think he was taken a round too early.
3. LB Buddy Johnson
I’m really surprised the Steelers choose to go this route. For a team that seemed deadset on filling big positions of need early, that strategy didn’t hold true with their second 4th-round pick. Despite getting Devin Bush back from an ACL injury and being able to re-sign Vince Williams for a minimum contract, the team elected to go with linebacker over a cornerback here.
If you recall, Pittsburgh had already lost both Steven Nelson and Mike Hilton this offseason and did nothing in the way of replacing them. While I am all in favor of taking the best player available, most draft analysts had Buddy Johnson slated as a 6th round draft choice.
Johnson tested as a terrific athlete with a 4.58 40-yard dash, 38.5” vertical jump, 10’8” broad jump, and a blazing 4.07 20-yard shuttle. Unfortunately, this explosion rarely shows up on tape and it often looks like Johnson is just jogging to the ball. Clearly, the athletic upside is all here, and perhaps the Steelers think Johnson could develop into a starter down the road. After all, Pittsburgh still could use an upgrade over Williams and Robert Spillane. I like Johnson as a developmental linebacker, but this pick seemed a little bit rich for me.
2. RB Najee Harris
I know a lot of fans won’t agree with this one, and that’s okay. We clearly have different philosophies on how to build a football team. Personally, I would start from the inside out – not the outside in as the Steelers are trying to do. By this, I mean that building a team should start in the trenches and worry about skill players later – not the other way around.
My distaste for taking Najee Harris with the 24th overall pick has very little to do with the prospect and almost everything to do with the position. I think that Harris is a really good running back prospect. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned out to be one of the best backs in the game. However, for him to be able to do this, that would speak more for the success of the offensive line to me than anything else.
Running backs, for the most part, are only a product of what’s in front of them. Even the greats like Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry have talented offensive lines in a stretch-zone scheme that really favors their game. Having said that, they may be the only two running backs in the league actually worth a first-round pick.
For a position that has the shortest shelf-life in all of football with a drastic decline in production and efficiency by the age of 26, I just disagree with the idea of spending elite draft capital this way. As a 23-year-old with no top-end speed, Harris will very much be a runner in the mold of Le’Veon Bell. That’s not worth a first, in my opinion.
1. DL Isaiah Loudermilk
If we don’t see eye to eye on anything else in this article, perhaps we can agree on this. I really don’t know what the Steelers were thinking here. This one caught me completely off guard. Pittsburgh did not own a 5th-round pick this year in the NFL Draft; however, they felt so strongly that they needed to trade away a 2022 4th-rounder to move back up and take… Isaiahh Loudermilk.
In my opinion, the defensive line is by far the best and deepest positional group on the team. Not only do you have a pair of Pro Bowl-level mammoths up front with Stephon Tuitt and Cameron Heyward, but you have some quality pieces in Tyson Alualu and Chris Wormley. Behind them, the Steelers still have a few young players who have flashed at times in Carlos Davis and Isaiah Buggs.
Still, Pittsburgh found it pressing enough to jump back into the draft this year and sacrifice a 4th-round pick for Wisconsin’s Isaiahh Loudermilk. I did watch some Loudermilk tape prior to the draft, and I knew that this was a player that Pittsburgh could potentially be interested in. However, most analysts had Loudermilk anywhere from a 6th-round pick to a priority free agent, so using quality draft capital on him might have been a bad choice. I hope he proves me wrong, but this was my biggest reach in the 2021 NFL Draft.
I’m not immune to making mistakes when it comes to evaluating talent, but many of these players I thought could have been had for a later draft choice (with the exception of Harris). I hope they all prove to be worth the draft capital spent on them, but they’ve got high expectations to live up to.