Draft season is upon us ladies and gentlemen! With the NFL Draft less than a month away, I thought it would be a good time to drop a full 7 round mock; with trades! But this year, I wanted to do it a bit differently. Instead of your basic 7 round mock where you scroll through pages of picks and find your team’s selections with relatively no commentary, I decided to break the mock up and do an article on each individual team’s haul! Giving you a breakdown of what each team brought in and how I think it could help. So without further adieu, let’s kick things off!
With the 24th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers select…
- Azeez Ojulari, DE, Georgia(1st round)
- Walker Little, OT, Stanford(2nd round)
- Shaun Wade, CB, Ohio St(3rd round)
- Trey Hill, OL, Georgia(4th round)
- Javian Hawkins, RB, Louisville(4th round)
- Justin Hilliard, LB, Ohio St(6th round)
- Frank Darby, WR, Arizona St(7th round)
The Steelers are in a very interesting position and could see their team swing in a major way soon. They saw some players leave in free agency and are close to seeing their future HOF QB retire. They are also a bit too far out to get the QB they want so they shift to adding talent in other areas.
In the first, they snag a very athletic edge rusher to replace Dupree. Azeez Ojulari has opinions all over from some teams viewing him as the best pass rusher in the draft while others have him further down. Personally, I think he is a good fit for the Steelers defense and with taking him, they shouldn’t see a giant dip in production. Another big addition to their defense is Shaun Wade. Wade was projected as a high draft pick early on so having him fall to the 3rd could provide tremendous value to a team with a need at corner.
On offense, they don’t have a ton of needs and aren’t in line to snag a QB. They do address one area of need at offensive tackle. Walker Little was projected as a top 5 pick before injuries and opting out. If Little can be 100% healthy, he has the ability to be a franchise LT which would make this a huge steal. In the 4th round, they are also able to snag a solid interior lineman to pair with Little. From there, they add some solid depth in Javian Hawkins and Frank Darby.
Overall, the Steelers do end up adding a lot of talent. On the defensive side, they add a potential game-changer in Ojulari as well as a corner with the potential to be a full-time starter. On offense, they bolster the offensive line and add some depth. This team is ready to compete so these additions should keep them competing for their division.
