5 players who would have been better picks for Steelers than Najee Harris

EDGE Odafe Oweh

My final ranking: 27th overall

Here’s a player that I actually mocked to the Steelers several times leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft. Mike Tomlin has a fascination with Michigan players, and I thought this would have made a ton of sense.

After Pittsburgh just lost both Bud Dupree and Ola Adeniyi in free agency, the team was razor-thin at the edge defender position outside of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. While I think Highsmith was a successful pick, he’s probably best suited as the first edge off the bench in the rotation.

Formerly known as Jayson Oweh, Odafe was powerful, fast, and athletic — testing as a 99.2 percentile athlete. Though his college production was lacking, Oweh possessed 4.37 speed at 6’4 7/8”, and 257 pounds. He was a moldable block of clay with untapped potential.

For the Steelers, Oweh could have proven to be a force opposite of Watt when rushing the passer and he’s excellent against the run. So far for the Ravens, Oweh has graded out as a top-40 player at his position. Pass rushers are far more important and much harder to come by than running backs, and Pittsburgh missed an opportunity to grab the Penn State product here.