The feel around the draft community is that Devin Bush and Devin White will both be top fifteen picks. In fact, most believe White will be top 10, and Bush won’t make it past the Bengals at number eleven. If that’s the case, the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to need a contingency plan. There’s no way Kevin Colbert will pay the price needed to get into the top 10. Here’s my latest mock draft, keeping in mind Devin Bush being gone by the time the Steelers pick at twenty:
ROUND 1: Greedy Williams – CB – LSU
If the Steelers could go into the lab and create their ideal corner, Greedy Williams would be the player they produce. A tall, fast, athletic corner who excels at man coverage is exactly the type this team covets. He is not the most willing run defense participant, and his effort can be lacking at times. Despite these drawbacks, Williams clearly has the highest ceiling of any corner in this draft.
ROUND 2: Blake Cashman – LB – Minnesota
This would be a pretty good consolation prize for the Steelers at linebacker. Take a look at his combine numbers, and compare them with Luke Kuechly’s. Their workouts are nearly identical. Now of course I’m not saying Cashman is the next Luke Kuechly, but even a poor mans version in the second round would be a good selection.
ROUND 3A: Ben Banogu – EDGE – TCU
Banogu is still a bit raw as a pass rusher, but tested off the charts at the draft combine. The TCU product tested in the 90th percentile in the 40 yard dash, vertical jump and 99th in the broad jump. He is the perfect player to bring in to sit a year behind Bud Dupree, with the intention of replacing him after the 2019 season. Banogu was brought in for a pre-draft visit by the Steelers, so there is legitimate interest in this player.
ROUND 3B: Miles Boykin – WR – Notre Dame
Keeping this the same as version 1.0, there is just too much evidence linking Boykin to the Steelers. He is the tall, fast outside threat that is the perfect compliment to this team’s wide receiver group. Boykin registered a whopping 150 SPARQ score, and as we have discussed in another post (Steelers value SPARQ score when evaluating draft prospects), we know how mush the Steelers value this when drafting players.
ROUND 4: Justice Hill – RB – Oklahoma St.
Another repeat from version 1.0 here. Hill’s elite speed would make him a good alternative to the bigger, slower backs like James Conner and Jaylen Samuels. He is the prototypical third down back with home run potential. The Steelers have not yet had Hill in fo a visit, but did meet with him at the NFL combine.
ROUND 5: Alize Mack – TE – Notre Dame
I have been looking for a mid-round tight end to mock to the Steelers for some time now. Foster Moreau was my first choice, but now Alize Mack has entered the picture. Mack has been in for a pre-draft visit, and the Steelers had a very large contingent at the Notre Dame pro-day.
ROUND 6A: David Sills V – WR – West Virginia
There has been a lot of reported interest in this player by the Steelers during the draft season. Sills is a tall, lanky receiver with only average speed (4.57/40) for the position. What really jumps out at you for this players is the touchdowns. Sills had 18 and 15 touchdowns respectively in his last two seasons at West Virginia. That kind of red-zone threat is certainly worth a flyer in the sixth round.
ROUND 6B: Ulysees Gilbert III – LB – Akron
There are two player I can’t get away from in the sixth round and Gilbert is one of them. Gilbert is an athletic linebacker with good range who would be an excellent late round choice. Pittsburgh had him in for a visit on April 4th, so the interest is there. It doesn’t hurt that his SPARQ score was 130, ranking him sixth among linebackers.
ROUND 6C: Sheldrick Redwine – S – Miami
And here is my other 6th rounder I kept from Verizon 1.0. Redwine is a fast (4.4/40) athletic safety with some upside. At this point of the draft, that’s all you can ask for. Redwine also managed five interceptions in his last two seasons at Miami.
Round 7: Jordan Brailford – EDGE – Oklahoma St.
This is another high SPARQ score player who the Steelers brought in for a pre-draft visit. Pittsburgh is extremely thin at outside linebacker, so the more they draft the better off they will be. Brailford is coming off a ten sack performance in 2018 for Oklahoma St.