The mock draft consensus seems to be shifting regarding whether or not the Pittsburgh Steelers will be able to stay at pick No. 17 in the 2023 NFL Draft and have one of the top three offensive tackles fall to them.
Those top three tackles are generally considered to be Ohio State’s Paris Johnson Jr., Northwestern’s Peter Skoronski and Georgia’s Broderick Jones, though the order among those three is less clear.
Skoronski’s stock has been gradually rising since taking a big hit after his combine arm measurement. Once considered a top 10 prospect, he fell all the way down below the Steelers to No. 20 in average rank at NFL Mock Draft Database on March 3.
Since then, he’s risen right back up to where he was before, suggesting NFL teams either weren’t surprised by or aren’t bothered by his arm measurements the way the draft prognosticators were.
Skoronski is currently the 11th-best prospect on average and the consensus mock draft has him going at No. 10 to the Philadelphia Eagles, well ahead of the Steelers’ pick.
The other prospect that has been consistently rising is Johnson, who has climbed from an average draft position seemingly within the Steelers reach at No. 16 on Christmas, all the way to his current average of No. 10 and consensus draft slot at No. 9 to the Chicago Bears.
While those two have been on a steady march up draft boards the last month, the third tackle has been slipping back a bit. Jones was listed as the No. 16 prospect on March 27, just out of the Steelers’ reach.
Currently, his average is the 19th overall prospect and his consensus mock draft selection is No. 13 by the New York Jets.
That suggests about a coin-flip chance of him being available to the Steelers, and recent mock drafts by CBS Sports and Pro Football Focus have the Steelers taking Jones with pick No. 17.
“They’ll be linked to cornerbacks more often than not here, but I think tackle is the more acute need,” wrote PFF’s Sam Manson. “Broderick Jones will be the No. 1 tackle on some boards, and while I don’t quite have it that way, the gap between him and my top tackle isn’t a big one. This is excellent value at a position of need.”
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