Omar Khan told Steelers nation how the draft was going to be set up. Andy Weidl would be in charge of setting up the draft board before turning it over to Mike Tomlin, Art Rooney, and Khan on draft night. With the scouting process well underway and in the middle of a major milestone in the combine this week, what does this layout mean for the Steelers?
More specifically, what can we expect from a big board comprised by Weidl? While he won’t have the final say on drafting players, he will be instrumental in creating the board that the higher-ups will use to select players. For a team that claims to select the best players available, Weidl will have quite a bit of power in where he places players.
What does Weidl’s history have to do with draft trends?
Weidl joined the Eagles in 2016 and was promoted to Director of Player Personnel in 2018 before becoming the Vice President of Player Personnel in 2019. He had a clear hand in picking players from 2020-2022, but I’m going to be looking at the Eagles 2019 class as well, as I’m sure Weidl had his hands on that class as well.
I’m looking for general trends, not hit-and-misses. I’ve seen numerous lists detailing the players he hit on while with the Eagles and whom he missed on. I don’t see the value in that, as any capable GM will have his fair share of both in his tenure.
What I’m focused on is what trends can I find in these classes. Obviously, the entire draft class isn’t credited to just Weidl, but he certainly had a hand in each of the Eagles' classes since 2019. With all of that said, here are five notable trends that Weidl may bring to the Steelers draft board.
5. Weidl may keep defensive backs off the Steelers board
One of the running gags of the Kevin Colbert draft room was his lack of ability to draft and develop defensive backs, especially later in his career. From 2010 and on, this team failed to find a capable safety or cornerback in the draft. While Cameron Sutton has become a good player and Terrell Edmunds has been a serviceable player, this team lacked much success with taking secondary players.
There is a lot of clamoring for the Steelers to address cornerback early given the need there. Unfortunately, it seems as though Weidl isn’t a fan of targeting defensive backs early or often in drafts. Since 2019, he has selected three total defensive backs and only one natural cornerback.
It wasn’t like the Eagles didn’t have needs there. They just opted to fill them by other means. One of the Eagles' biggest needs last year was defensive back, as the only returning player was Darius Slay (a former trade target by Philadelphia). Instead of prioritizing the position, the Eagles went without a selection in the secondary.
Instead, they added a slew of undrafted free agents and added some veterans after the draft via free agency and by trade. While Weidl wasn’t a part of the Eagles defense that just made it to the Super Bowl, he was instrumental in constructing it. They didn’t seem to lack secondary play despite not having a lot of draft capital at the position.
While Weidl isn’t in charge of choosing the Steelers draft picks, I have to wonder where he will rank some of the top cornerbacks in comparison to other positions. For those expecting a top defensive back early, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. If Weidl has it his way, any secondary addition likely won’t be made until day three of the draft.
4. Weidl loves athletes
One trend that lines up with what the Steelers like to do, Weidl will likely prioritize athletic prospects in the draft. This is no new thing for Pittsburgh, as athletic ability has always been a core component of whom this team drafts.
From taking the freakiest specimen in recent years in Jordan Davis to focusing on high RAS scores for any offensive lineman selected, Weidl wants his draft picks to be able to fly. Since 2019, he hasn’t had a player score below a 5.67 RAS score.
The Steelers have a very similar philosophy when they draft, looking for premiere athletes as opposed to productive players who test poorly. While exceptions could still be made, I would be closely watching the athletic numbers of prospects before linking them to Pittsburgh.
This seems even more important with linemen. If a top prospect flunks the combine, it would seem likely that they will shoot down the draft board. Weidl likes big men that can move. If a prospect can’t do that, I don’t like their odds of ending up with the Steelers.
3. Weidl may snap the Steelers receiver success
Colbert and the Steelers were widely recognized as one of the better receiver drafting teams in the NFL. It seems like everyone they took developed some sort of role, and their slew of second and third-round picks created a good core of players for Ben Roethlisberger to target.
Weidl hasn’t had the same amount of success, and it certainly hasn’t been for a lack of trying. Over the past four drafts, the Eagles have selected five receivers, with three of those picks coming in the first two rounds. The results haven’t been great.
Devonta Smith has come into his own despite size questions, and he seems like a worthy first-round pick at this point in his career. While not an elite player, Quez Watkins has become a bit player and a deep threat. For a sixth-round pick, I would call that a win.
Everyone else has been a bust. While losing out on a fifth-round pick like John Hightower isn’t the end of the world, having a second-round pick like JJ Arcega-Whiteside bust out is. He was expected to be a safety valve for the team, but it never clicked, and he was traded away this past offseason.
Even worse was the selection of Jalen Reagor. While he garnered some attention with his speed, Reagor was seen as a reach by most on draft night, as he was very limited at TCU. Even worse, Justin Jefferson was selected by the Vikings after this pick, adding further salt to the womb.
Weidl’s track record with receivers is mediocre, and that is something the Steelers can’t have with a young quarterback at the helm. Hopefully, the scouting department can help right this ship. If not, this team may need to look for a veteran receiver to fill out this depth chart.
2. Weidl can have Steelers pay for undrafted talent
One of the biggest changes I saw with draft classes under Weidl actually occurred after the draft. A large pool of players goes undrafted every year, and teams get a certain amount of money that they can use as signing bonuses to entice these undrafted players to their team. Some teams have begun guaranteeing some of the base salaries of these players to further entice them.
The Steelers are not one of these teams, as their recent undrafted rookie classes haven’t even used the allotted signing bonus money. This, in turn, has yielded mediocre classes that haven’t been able to add talent to this roster after the draft wraps up. It’s a huge issue, as Pittsburgh is missing out on a huge opportunity.
Weidl turned the Eagles into one of the more aggressive spenders after the draft, as was apparent in 2021 and 2022. 2021 saw them land backup tight end Jack Stoll, whom they guaranteed a portion of his salary to bring him aboard. 2022 was even more aggressive, as they handed deals like this to multiple different prospects.
This worked well though, as the Eagles found four undrafted free agents that all contributed in 2022. The best of this turned out to be Reed Blankenship, as he played in ten games with four starts and developed into a core player for that defense.
The Steelers archaic ways of enticing undrafted free agents needed to change, and that will hopefully happen with Weidl. Sure, a lot of those guarantees end up as cap charges for cut players, but the overall impact is small. In return, you get a far better chance of building out the roster after the draft wraps up.
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.