A year ago, the Steelers entered the 2022 NFL Draft in definite need of a quarterback. They knew it, the NFL knew it, everyone knew it. And they took a quarterback, Kenny Pickett.
Now, heading into Thursday's draft, the team — specifically its head coach — feels that it is without a definitive area of need in the first round.
"Obviously we've been able to do some things in free agency that I really feel like provides a clean slate for us from a draft perspective," Tomlin said Monday at the team's pre-draft press conference. "We don't have any glaring needs.
"We're able to look at the board in totality and not be swayed inappropriately or in any specific way."
And, in a sense, Tomlin is right.
The Steelers have added to their inside linebacker, wide receiver, interior offensive line, safety, cornerback and defensive line positions in free agency. Because of that, they don't have that one specific position that they absolutely must draft at 17th overall.
But, what they do have, is a need to draft at least two positions in their top three picks.
Cornerback and offensive tackle are those two positions. The Steelers, unless the picks break in a very unfavorable way ahead of them Thursday, should be looking to fill those two positions at 17th, 32nd and/or 49th overall.
The team's general manager, Omar Khan, highlighted both of those position groups when asked about what positions have the best depth in this draft.
Khan said that the defense line, offensive line, cornerback and outside linebacker groups are deepest, in that order.
Tomlin jumped in to also include the tight end group in that mix.
At tackle, the Steelers saw improvement on the left side from Dan Moore, Jr. last season. But he graded out at a 62.4 via PFF's player grading system. On the right side, Chukwuma Okorafor was worse, per PFF, at 61.2.
But the team's run game steadily improved, and even looked dominant at times in the back half of the season. And that could mean that Steelers look to add to their defense in the first round.
The team grabbed Patrick Peterson via free agency, a veteran corner tasked with replacing Cam Sutton, who signed in Detroit. He'll team up with Levi Wallace, who has just a year left on his contract and was injured some last season.
The team's other corners, Ahkello Witherspoon, Arthur Maulet and James Pierre could certainly use an upgrade injected.
Because of those factors, finding a shut down corner should be the Steelers' biggest priority in this draft. But, depending on the results ahead of them, it appears that Tomlin, Khan and company are comfortable with a variety of options.
