PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – We wonder about how much truth comes out of a pre-draft news conference, there was one statement that held true as the Steelers drafted Oregon defensive lineman Derrick Harmon Thursday night in the first round.
“We talked about certain guys that we would not trade away from, and this is one of those players for us,” said GM Omar Khan.
The Steelers general manager said the phone was ringing. They had ‘many serious conversations’ about trading back, but Khan said with Harmon there it was an easy choice to select him 21st overall.
“He has Steelers DNA,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “For us, it starts inside and up front, and this is a guy that's capable of dominating that space versus the run and the pass. So, we're really excited about having him. As Omar mentioned, we were not interested in considering trading away from him and really excited about getting him in here and getting started.”
A Second-Team All-American, Harmon had a career-high 10.5 tackles for loss and five sacks and led all of FBS interior defensive linemen with 55 total pressures generated at Oregon according to Pro Football Focus. He had 11 more pressures than any other FBS player.
“His tape was impressive,” Tomlin said. “We had great visits with him in Indy. He came to Pittsburgh, and we had a great day with him. Just with each interaction we all got more and more comfortable that he was our type of a guy.”
Elaborating on the tape, Tomlin said Harmon has the ability to not only pressure the quarterback, but stop the run. He said you don’t have a top-notch defense unless you do both.
“The people at Oregon were really blown away by his ability to fit in and not only fit in but led in a short period of time,” Tomlin said. “He had a similar reputation at Michigan State, and so the tangible things are obvious, but we were equally as impressed with his intangible quality, his intelligence, his relationship with the game, his natural leadership qualities.”
There were reports of Harmon having shoulder issues. Harmon said he was fine and Khan said they wouldn’t have picked him unless the medical staff was comfortable with it.
Tomlin said he’s excited for Harmon to work with defensive captain Cam Heyward and playing a similar position with similar traits, it gives them great flexibility in terms of how they choose to deploy those guys. They also believe he and Keeanu Benton are going to play a long time together and both have similar versatility.
“It was easy,” Khan said. “We were taking him.”