Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers are projected to draft Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty with their 2025 first-round pick.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are projected to land the 2025 NFL Draft’s top running back — Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty — in The 33rd Team’s latest mock draft.
Kyle Crabbs of The 33rd Team predicts the Steelers will stick at pick No. 21, and have their choice between the draft’s top running backs and wide receivers, outside of Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan, who goes to the New York Jets at No. 7 overall.
“The Steelers DNA is well established. This team embraces a physical brand football, and under Mike Tomlin, they will want to play smash-mouth football and run the ball,” Crabbs writes. “Najee Harris is set to hit free agency this offseason after four years and nearly 1,300 touches from scrimmage. Resigning him would not be a bad idea, but spending on a running back is always controversial. Instead, Pittsburgh could take advantage of the slide experienced by Ashton Jeanty here to get a fresh workhorse behind their revamped offensive line courtesy of recent draft classes.”
Jeanty had a historic 2024 season at Boise State as he rushed for the second-most yards (2,601) and seventh-most touchdowns (29) in college football history.
Following his junior season, he won the Maxwell and Doak Walker Awards and was the Heisman Trophy runner-up to Colorado’s Travis Hunter.
However, while Jeanty seems to be one of the best players eligible for the 2025 NFL Draft, the Steelers just drafted a running back in the first round in 2021 — Najee Harris.
Harris did surpass the 1,000-yard rushing mark in each of his first four seasons, but selecting a running back in the first-round has been long-debated as a poor use of high draft capital.
Instead, it would be smart of the Steelers to look at the other playmakers still on the board like Texas’ Matthew Golden, Missouri’s Luther Burden and Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka to avoid repeating history with several other more-pressing needs to fill.
