Trends Steelers should expect with Andy Weidl in charge of the draft board

1. Could Weidl prioritize the trenches

The single biggest trend that I noticed with Weidl is that he primarily focuses on building the trenches of a football team. It doesn’t matter what the state of the Eagles line was, the focus of the draft was bettering and deepening the lines on both sides of the team. Over the past four drafts, the Eagles selected a whopping 13 different linemen.

It wasn’t like the Eagles had bad trenches either. Their offensive line has been one of the better groups overall even without the constant reloading of drafted talent. The defensive line has consistently been a strong and deep unit, featuring names like Fletcher Cox, Javon Hargrave, and Brandon Graham.

Yet the Eagles still added names like Milton Williams and Davis in consecutive drafts. They added names like Cam Jurgens, Andre Dillard, and Landon Dickerson early in the draft even when a starting role wasn’t instantly available. Weidl wants deep and talented lines that never lack a capable body.

For a Steelers team that has felt so shallow along both the defensive and offensive line, prioritizing either would be a welcome change to this team. Ideally, that starts this year with their wealth of picks in the first three rounds of the draft. It isn’t out of the question to see three of those five picks be dedicated to the trenches.

While Weidl won’t be the primary decision-maker on draft night, he will be compiling the draft board for the decision-makers. Based on the past four Eagles drafts, these are changes that I think we can all expect. Not all of them are great, but Weidl clearly has his ways of thinking through a draft.