What Is Steelers’ Biggest Smokescreen This Draft Cycle?

What is the Steelers’ biggest smokescreen during this draft cycle?

Not for the first time, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged yesterday that you can’t believe everything you see. We tend to analyze every step he takes in the pre-draft process. Accordingly, he said he’s well aware of this, and sometimes takes extra steps to mislead.

In other words, he, like presumably everybody else, throws up smokescreens to divert attention. Obviously, you’re not supposed to know what’s a smokescreen and what isn’t—knowing would defeat its purpose. And quite honestly, we couldn’t say for sure even in hindsight in most cases just based on draft results.

We are quick to jump to some basic conclusions about what the Steelers would like to do, though. Just looking at their pre-draft visitors, you’d expect them to take a tackle, center, and wide receiver early. That may be what they hope to do, but failing to do so doesn’t mean their interest in one group was fake.

A smokescreen can work both ways, of course: concealing interest in a player. There are a lot of connections to LSU WR Brian Thomas Jr., for example, yet there aren’t a lot of breadcrumbs there. I still don’t see the Steelers drafting a wide receiver in the first round. But I bet he’s in their top 20 players even if Mike Tomlin wasn’t at his Pro Day.

As I suggested, this is probably a question that we can’t actually answer. But it’s a question that’s worth thinking about as we consider the manner in which we track data. In fact, that’s one of the reasons that we do track things, to see which aspects of the process correlate with results.

But even that is limited because we assume the correlation is more than just correlative, at least in some cases. If the Steelers looked at 20 different wide receivers and drafted two of them, we can probably reasonably assume they had a lot of interest in adding to the wide receiver room. Our impression that the Steelers aren’t as cryptic as most organizations is still likely true. But it sure would be interesting to know which trees we’re wasting our time barking up.

The Steelers’ 2023 season has been put out of its misery, ending as so many have before in recent years: a disappointing, blowout playoff loss. The only change-up lately is when they miss the playoffs altogether. But with the Buffalo Bills stamping them out in the Wildcard Round, they have another long offseason ahead.

The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Does Russell Wilson make them a Super Bowl-caliber team, or are they wasting a year? Will he play just one season in Pittsburgh before moving on, or the Steelers moving on from him? How will the team address the depth chart?

The Steelers are swirling with more questions this offseason than usual, frankly, though the major free agent list is less substantial than usual. It’s just a matter of…what happens next? Where do they go from here? How do they find the way forward?