Steelers mock draft: Pittsburgh finds their QB in full 2022 first-round mock

With a lot of recent roster shake-ups around the league, it muddies the water of what Pittsburgh might do this April. Here’s my updated Steelers mock draft.

With the NFL Combine in the rearview mirror, mock draft season is in full swing. While the Combine gave us some insight as to which players moved up draft boards, some big moves around the NFL muddied the waters with some cosmic shake-ups.

The Seattle Seahawks now own the 9th overall pick after trading away Russell Wilson, while the Broncos and Commanders seem to have their quarterback situations figured out. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers may not be able to get the signal-caller they were initially hoping for, and Dallas will need to find a player who could help stomach the loss of Amari Cooper.

Here’s what I have each team doing in my post-Combine 2022 first-round NFL mock draft:

Steelers mock draft:

If I’m the Jacksonville Jaguars, I’m doing everything in my power to make sure Trevor Lawrence turns out to be a great quarterback. For me, this would mean taking Evan Neal or Ikem Ekwonu. However, the team recently placed the franchise tag on Cam Robinson. With their offensive line mostly in place, I have Jacksonville taking the best overall player on their board in Michigan edge defender, Aidan Hutchinson. He and Josh Allen could give the Jaguars a lethal pairing on their defensive line.

Like the Jaguars, the Lions also have their offensive line pretty well set with two very solid offensive tackles in Penei Sewell and Taylor Lewan. If they loved a player like Malik Willis enough, I could see them taking their quarterback here. If not, this pick is most likely Oregon edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux — a player who has been linked to Detroit since before the 2021 season.

No player is climbing up draft boards faster than Kavon Walker right now. The Georgia pass rusher was overshadowed on the defensive line by Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt, and his statistical production was pedestrian. However, this was largely due to playing on a defense that could afford to deploy a heavy rotation on the DL. Walker tested off the charts a the NFL Combine and has a prototype build and athletic traits to develop into one of the best edge defenders in the NFL down the road. He shoots all the way up to the third overall pick to Houston in my post-Combine NFL mock draft.

Evan Neal is certainly good enough to be the number one overall pick this year, and he will be the top player on many draft boards. You just don’t find 6’7 1/2”, 334-pound offensive linemen that are built like him. Neal was just a junior at Alabama last year in the nation’s best football program and with right tackle Morgan Moses leaving in free agency, Neal becomes an easy pick for the New York Jets. The combination of Neal and Mekhi Becton has a chance to be one of the best OT pairings for a long time.