Steelers unintentionally broke from draft tradition with upperclassmen

Kevin Colbert said the odd thing about this year's #SteelersDraft class is there are five seniors and only one underclassmen…the #Steelers have typically taken younger players recently.

— Missi Matthews (@missi_matthews) April 25, 2020

The philosophy of the Pittsburgh Steelers has traditionally been to lean toward underclassmen with all things being equal. But as their draft board fell over the weekend, the Steelers ended up only getting one underclassman out of six picks.

Running back Anthony McFarland Jr. is a redshirt sophomore and will enter the league at 21 years old. This is the same age as wide receiver Chase Claypool who was at Notre Dame for four seasons. By contrast, defensive tackle Carlos Davis and offensive guard Kevin Dotson are both the elder statesmen of the class at 23 years old.