If you've been following the Pittsburgh Steelers closely over roughly the past two decades, it's easy to survey the trail of breadcrumbs and know who this team has been interested in just before the NFL Draft. Since Mike Tomlin was hired as the team's head coach in 2007, we've been able to use Pittsburgh's pre-draft interests to narrow down their first-round candidates—often well enough to predict their first-round selection on the head.
Over the years, players who met with Tomlin and former general manager Kevin Colbert for Pro Day dinner meetings were high on the Steelers' draft radar. Since 2023, Pittsburgh's top-30 pre-draft visits with Tomlin and GM Omar Khan have held the most weight.
These precursors have proven essential to becoming a first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers. If Tomlin and/or the GM didn't meet with a player at his Pro Day or bring them into the facility for a pre-draft visit, history tells us there's almost no chance of that player being selected by the Steelers in Round 1.
However, we could be entering uncharted territory with the Steelers' secret weapon that nobody is talking about.
Andy Weidl could change how the Pittsburgh Steelers do business in the NFL Draft
Back when Omar Khan became general manager, the Pittsburgh Steelers hired an assistant general manager: Andy Weidl. The Howie Roseman understudy helped build a Super Bowl-winning roster for the Philadelphia Eagles before coming to The Steel City.
While Khan seems to get all of the praise (and clever nicknames) for moves made in the front office, it's Weidl who constructs the Steelers' draft board. Mike DeFabo of The Athletic recently reminded us of this fact while insisting that Weidl's 'opinion carries a lot of weight'.
So why does this matter? Weidl's influence could shatter Pittsburgh's historic draft trends beginning this week.
There are notable players who have been linked to the Pittsburgh Steelers who don't follow the Tomlin/Khan draft trends. Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen and Michigan DT Kenneth Grant are two prominant examples. Tomlin and Khan were absent from each of their Pro Days, and neither first-round prospect received a top-30 pre-draft visit by the Steelers.
But what fans haven't accounted for is Weidl's presence. Weidl was in attendance at the Pro Days of both Nolen and Grant, and the Steelers' assistant GM got an up-close and personal look at these impressive NFL Draft prospects.
The fact that Weidl was in attendance for two players who should be on Pittsburgh's draft radar suggests the Steelers are close to bucking these historic trends that we've seen for the better part of two decades. And if this happens, we can take everything we know about this team's thought process during the draft and throw it out the window.
Andy Weidl was brought on to help the Pittsburgh Steelers construct a championship roster, and Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan should give him the freedom to do his job—even if that means handing over some power and breaking historic draft trends.