The 25 most likely Steelers defensive targets in 2022 draft

Steelers defensive prospect #21

A name that really doesn’t inspire a lot of defensive help but should be a good special teams player, James Skalski is an undersized and unathletic linebacker that really doesn’t have a home in an NFL defense. Despite being an extremely smart player, he lacks the physical traits to ever be more than a backup.

Skalski was a quality contributor for the Clemson defense over the past few years which has given him a national stage to show off his skills. He is a fine tackler and can read an offense well enough, but he is short, underweight, and slow which really inhibits him. His smarts should lead to him being a decent special teams linebacker, but it’s hard to imagine him being much more than that.

The Steelers have shown to be willing to draft these types of linebackers late. One just has to think back to Tyler Matakevich as proof of this, as the seventh-round pick was brought in just to play special teams. That said, Skalski is even more limited than Matakavich was. He could go in the seventh round, but odds are he is an undrafted name in this year’s class.