“We knew before (their pick came up),” Khan said. “It was easy. We were taking him.”
The Steelers aren’t going to shy away from taking a quarterback in the first round if and when the opportunity arises. But they also aren’t going to reach to take one just to take one.
Perhaps Sanders, Dart or some other quarterbacks in this draft will turn out to be good starters. But the Steelers had Harmon rated higher on their draft board.
• One thing that seems to be overlooked time and again this offseason has been the Steelers’ addition of wide receiver DK Metcalf with their second-round pick as part of a package with the Seahawks.
But there were just three wide receivers taken in the first round of this draft, two of which – Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan and Ohio State’s Emeka Ebbuka – who had already been selected when the Steelers made their pick.
If prospect DK Metcalf had been available in this draft, he would have been the first one selected. As it is, the Steelers didn’t have to guess if he’d turn into a good player. They already know he is.
And they got him in the second round.
• With five picks remaining over the draft’s final two days, the Steelers still have some needs remaining.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure them out,” Khan said on Steelers Nation Radio.
Adding to the running back room, perhaps selecting another defensive lineman and getting a young quarterback to take to camp are among them.
But even if they don’t get some of those things in the draft, free agency will again heat up after this weekend is completed.
With the draft now here, veteran players who are true free agents – players on expired contracts – no longer count against the NFL’s compensatory pick formula. Players who were released by their former teams don’t factor into that equation at all.
There will be a market for those players for teams who still have holes they didn’t fill in the draft. There also could be some additional veteran players joining those ranks in the coming weeks as teams adust their rosters following the draft.
