The great debate when it comes to the NFL draft is between drafting for need and drafting the best player available. Most teams will never admit it but how they draft can vary from round to round in any given draft. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, they stand by the premise of not drafting for need. Sort of.
General manager Kevin Colbert and head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to the media on Monday and the question came up about would the Steelers draft for need if players were close.
Colbert made it clear for the Steelers to draft for need as opposed to best player available, they would do it if the need position player graded lower but it couldn’t be by much.
It is fascinating to apply this logic to the 2016 draft when the Steelers took cornerback Artie Burns. The problems with his game were well documented and the move felt like a panic after the Cincinnati Bengals took William Jackson just a few picks before.
The same could be said for last year when the Steelers drafted safety Terrell Edmunds in the first round. Pittsburgh says they rank their top 20 players which meant for them, Edmunds was the highest-rated guy on their board and not simply a response to the need at safety, which was glaring.
