PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Two-thirds of the way through their official visits before the NFL Draft in a couple of weeks, Wednesday’s visitors to the Steelers are a way the team could go with their first few picks.
Much discussed to the Steelers, Oregon center Jackson Powers-Johnson was on the South Side along with Notre Dame tackle Blake Fisher according to the team website.
Powers-Johnson is coming off a huge final season with the Ducks winning the Rimington Trophy as the best center in college football. Before starting every game this year, Powers-Johnson did whatever he could to get on the field playing right guard and right tackle at times. He’s got size, the junior is 6’3”, 320 pounds who plays with good leverage, range and explosiveness. He has been knocked in recent weeks about his snapping ability and seems to be in more of the dead heat with Zach Frazier from West Virginia and Sedrick Van Pran (Georgia) in many draft boards.
If the Steelers were to select Powers-Johnson in the first round, as several mock drafts predict with the obvious need there, they could go to their other visitor Wednesday in the third round or potentially even later.
Fisher declared for the draft as a redshirt sophomore and is graded as a top 100 available player. He’s 6’6”, 312 pounds and was a five-star recruit for the Fighting Irish and actually started more games for Notre Dame, 25, than Powers-Johnson did for Oregon. Understandably at 6’6”, he has great length and at 312 pounds, good quickness, but is known as a mauler in the run game who plays with an edge and would play right tackle. That could mean the move of Broderick Jones to left if he would come in and show he could play as a rookie.
Visits show the team has interest, but obviously it doesn’t mean a slam-dunk of being drafted. That being said, two guys who both fill obvious needs for the Steelers in town.