The Pittsburgh Steelers need to address a few holes on their roster in the 2024 NFL Draft. Obviously, all of the answers coming through the draft seem unlikely, but the team will have to address at least two of their holes with the draft, and then the rest could come with trades or free-agency acquisitions.
Daniel Jeremiah, in a conference call on Wednesday, stated that he believes the Steelers need to get better at center and wide receiver and should go value with their needs across the board.
“I think they have specific things they need to get accomplished here. Starting with the center position, obviously, adding something to the wide receiver room,” Jeremiah said. “I think they can be a little more targeted, to answer your question there. Do we think about best player available, or do we target specific needs? It’s helpful when you don’t have one specific need, in a sense.
They have a couple different areas they need to address and they kind of be flexible based off who’s there in what order they go in addressing the positions. Yeah, they’re ready to win right now. I think they’ve kind of tried to form their identity, get back to who they are. They want to run the football. They want to be better up front. I thought the offensive line took some steps forward with the additions they had last year. I think they continue to add to it this year. And then they’ve just got to get some production out of the quarterback position, whether that’s Russell or whether that’s Fields, that’s going to determine their success. But I agree with you from the standpoint of they don’t need to pick somebody for three years from now. They’re ready to go right now. They need to plug some of those spots.”
One way they can try to plug more holes is to trade back. It seems like this year’s draft could be a perfect opportunity for the Steelers to trade down for the first time since selecting Casey Hampton in 2001. The Steelers just have so many needs—wide receiver, center, offensive tackle, and slot cornerback. Those four feel like the obvious top four needs and could be classified as positions they must draft in some respects.
But in addition to that, the team needs to see who the best player available is on the board at all times, particularly because the value in this draft is at their positions of need. Jeremiah seems spot-on with his ideas because the team has more musts than needs than they want at this point.
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