Steelers send the house scout NFL Draft prospects during Senior Bowl Week

If you were wondering how committed the Pittsburgh Steelers are to improving the talent on their roster in 2025, they'd prefer to show you in numbers. As much as any team in the league, this franchise is always well-represented during Senior Bowl Week. This year is no different.

Fans who paid close attention to this team during the offseason over the years routinely saw head coach Mike Tomlin on the scouting trail with former general manager Kevin Colbert. Now the reigns have been passed to the new front office, and Pittsburgh brought their brass to the Senior Bowl.

The NFL Draft starts in Mobile—beginning with the first Senior Bowl practice that took place on Tuesday, January 28. As expected, we saw quite the representation by Pittsburgh.

Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan were expectedly on hand for the first day of Senior Bowl practices. They were accompanied by offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin. If Art Rooney II's statement wasn't enough, the fact that Smith and Austin are both in attendance ensures they will be sticking around for the 2025 season.

In addition to Tomlin, Khan, Smith, and Austin, director of pro scouting Sheldon White and director of player scouting Mark Sadowski were both spotted on the practice field in Mobile, Alabama. The biggest Steelers names not spotted in attendance are assistant GM Andy Weidl and special teams coach Danny Smith.

Steelers personnel hint where NFL Draft focus lies

Those in attendance each have a different objective. We all could have expected that Arthur Smith would head over to scope out the offensive talent while Teryl Austin would have his eyes on the defense. But there are a few context clues we can take from Day 1 of Senior Bowl practices.

At the beginning of practice, Mike Tomlin went directly to the defensive line to scout individual drills. This is widely considered to be the strongest positional group in attendance. Likewise, Omar Khan had his eyes on the National Team defensive tackles, per Alan Saunders of Steelers Now.

Saunders noted that Tomlin was also spotted speaking to 49ers GM John Lynch and teased the idea of wide receiver trade talks. The Steelers had a deal on the table for Brandon Aiyuk last offseason before San Francisco pulled the rug out from under them.

While it's impossible to know this early in the process who the Steelers could be targeting early in the draft, the representation on hand and their apparent interest in a strong defensive line class suggests DL is a position high on their draft radar.

Expect this group of Steelers personnel to be here for the full slate of practices in Mobile for Senior Bowl Week. We'll continue to check in on the situation.