4 players the Steelers may regret passing on in 2021 Draft

Steelers passed on Shaun Wade

I will be one hundred percent honest; when the Steelers moved up into the fifth round of the draft, I fully expected them to draft Shaun Wade. An Ohio St. player that was seen as a first-round pick heading into the season as a slot cornerback before the Buckeyes moved him more to the outside and he struggled? Sign me up. Instead, the trade-up was for Isaiahh Loudermilk, a player who was far worse value and didn’t fit a team need. I was disappointed, to say the least.

Now to be clear, Wade has plenty of issues on his own. His regression in 2020 was hard to watch, but a lot of that had to do with how he was used. He was suddenly tasked with covering outside receivers, and he was clearly mismatched there. This means he would be limited only to the slot as a pro, but as was the case with Molden, that was what the team needed. While he has some risk attached to him because of how he regressed last season, it would have been well worth taking on in the fifth round of the draft.

The fact of the matter is, the Steelers have a lot of questions surrounding this secondary right now. While all signs point to Pierre ascending to a pseudo-starter, expecting an undrafted rookie to make that jump is optimistic. Adding a more capable slot corner would have alleviated a lot of those concerns. Wade has some risk attached to him, but as a fifth-round pick, it would have been well worth the investment.