Steelers Now
The 2027 NFL Draft class has been heralded for quite some time now due to the sheer volume of five-star recruits that have shown immense promise early in their collegiate careers, which is typically an indicator of positive things to come. That’s fantastic news for teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are in the midst of another transition year after but have a fair amount of exciting young talent already on the roster to work with. Most of the focus from fans and media alike has been hyper-fixated on the quarterback class, headlined by Texas signal caller Arch Manning, which does show a lot of promise!
But after rolling through other positional groups through the summer scouting process thus far, my interest began to shift, and I wanted to throw a curveball by completing a mock draft that solely focused on rebuilding the defense. Of course, in order for this sort of outcome to be within the realm of possibilities next spring, someone like Drew Allar would need to flash in a big way next season. But with the old guard of T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, and Jalen Ramsey all in the final stages of their careers and the organization spending a surplus of draft capital on the offensive side of the ball recently, it’s not the craziest idea in the world.
If nothing else, it gives me a platform to talk through some of the Steelers’ biggest future needs, as well as a few intriguing prospects worth paying attention to once real football is back on your television screens. One housekeeping note: the draft order is set by the current reverse Super Bowl odds. Here we go!
There’s a lot of hype around this interior defensive line class, and after a deep dive into some of the more heralded names, I believe that it’s warranted, with Stone being the guy with the most potential out of this crop. The position-critical athletic traits are all over the tape with good production despite playing most of last season as a 19-year-old. He’s capable of winning quickly in the rep due to his explosiveness off the ball; he can get on the edge of blockers or cross face with quickness and has a primary go-to move (club-swim/club-rip) in a pass-rushing arsenal that is otherwise developing. He’s a strong kid that is naturally powerful in his upper body and has shown the ability to compress the pocket by running through the midline of his opponent.
His heavy, violent hands show up versus the run; he appears to have long levers to create first significant contact and reset the line of scrimmage with solid overall block deconstruction skills. He’s difficult to reach block and is more of a gap shooter that likes to get upfield where his range and functional athleticism shine. His impact on a snap-to-snap basis was outstanding, finishing second in the country with a 13.0% run-stop win-rate according to PFF behind Ohio...
