Parish’s 2025 NFL Draft Gems Primer: 2024 in Review

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Ryan Parish will return soon with which 2025 mid-and-late-round Steelers prospects you should keep your eye on. But first, let’s review 2024’s results.

I first began writing for Behind the Steel Curtain last March. After officially landing the gig, I took a few days to contemplate what topic I wanted my first writing for the site to be about. Excited for the opportunity, I wanted to bring something to the site that was both work I could be proud of and worth readers’ time. As I mulled my options, the old adage “write what you know,” kept playing in my thoughts.

For me, a life-long NFL Draft nerd, that meant writing about the incoming rookie class. But I didn’t want to give all of you something that you could easily find from ESPN or the NFL’s various platforms. I wanted to dive into some of the less talked about prospects because, let’s face it, mainstream media does a lot of discussion on potential first-round prospects, but not much beyond that.

For some people that’s more than enough. But if you’re a draft obsessive, like me, you want to know about every pick your team will make. After all, landing players like Stephon Tuitt in the second round, Alex Highsmith in the third round, or Antonio Brown in the sixth round can be just as meaningful to a franchise as nailing their first pick.

Last year, we loosely called this series “Bargain Drafting,” and we covered offensive tackles, interior offensive linemen, wide receivers, cornerbacks, defensive linemen, and edge rushers.

Overall, I think I did pretty well.

By the end of last season, Murphy returned from injury to play, meaning only two players I highlighted failed to register a snap. Altogether, prospects I highlighted played in 265 games across 7,174 snaps. I’m pretty pleased with that for a first attempt.

As for my evaluation process I did fairly decently there too. My goal was to highlight players who would be selected after the first round. Wide receiver Ricky Pearsall surprised by sneaking into the first round, but otherwise I achieved my mission there as well.

Rounds Highlighted Prospects Were Drafted

• RD 1 – 1 player
• RD 2 – 7 players
• RD 3 – 6 players
• RD 4 – 3 players
• RD 5 – 6 players
• RD 6 – 4 players
• RD 7 – 2 players
• UDFA – 2 players

Later this week, I’ll kick of the 2025 version of this series, — with a rebranding to “Draft Gems” — starting with wide receivers. But today, let’s take a deeper dive into each postion group I highlighted a year ago and see how I did.

Cornerbacks

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Prospects: Renardo Green (2nd Rd), Andru Phillips (3rd), Khyree Jackson (4th), Jarvis Brownlee Jr. (5th), Nehemiah Pritchett (5th), Myles Harden (7th)

Collective Stats: 62 games played, 28 starts, 2,700 snaps, 3 interceptions, 24 passes defensed, 224 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 3 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, 1 sack

The cornerback group ended up being one of my most diverse in terms of draft round representation, and one of the more successful groups I had for year one production. Because I’m highlighting players that are supposed to be picked later in the draft, players that gain starting time is one of our first boxes to check on evaluating our process.

When picking prospects last year, I was mainly looking for press corners with decent athleticism scores.

Among the highlights were Renardo Green who the 49ers drafted with the last pick of the second round and Andru Phillips, who was drafted by the Giants at pick 70. Both players took over starting roles down the stretch — Green on the outside and Phillips in the nickel — and are projected to maintain those roles, according to Ourlads.

Searching for role fits and athleticism served me well in my process, but the feather in my cap was Titans’ corner Jarvis Brownlee Jr. The Titans corner was actually one of only two players I highlighted with a Relative Athletic Score below 7.00 — Brownlee scored a 4.62 RAS and Titans nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat scored a 4.18 — but he had the most snaps and starts out of all 31 prospects I wrote about. Despite his relatively mediocre athletic testing, I liked Brownlee’s tape. He has a feistiness in coverage I thought could translate. He’s well on his way to being a solid pro.

If you had asked me which position group I was most nervous about this time last year, it would have been cornerback. Follow the draft long enough and you’ll have some prospects you enjoy flame out spectacularly. Corner is arguably the second hardest position to play well in the NFL, so I’m pleased with these first year results. I will continue to look for corners with plus-movement skills and length, and I’m excited to see moving forward if I lucked out with Brownlee or if I’m starting to refine my eye for press corners.

Wide receivers

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Prospects: Ricky Pearsall (1st), Roman Wilson (3rd), Jalen McMillan (3rd), Bub Means (5th), Cornelius Johnson (7th)

Collective Stats: 33 games played, 1,298 snaps, 77 receptions, 979 yards, 12 touchdowns, 12.71 YPR, 7 rushes for 88 yards, 6 punt returns for 53 yards

Humorously, the position group I would have been most confident in last year was wide receiver. As both a draft nerd and player of dynasty fantasy football, recevier is a postion I’ve grown more confident in scouting in recent years. Still, my 2024 prospcects are a bit of a mixed bag, though I would say they’re starting to trend in the right direction.

Ricky Pearsall was a player I liked as a second round prospect, but he snuck into the tail end of the first round when he was picked by San Francisco. His career got off to a difficult start when he was shot in the street by someone trying to rob him. That delayed the start to his season, but after returning in Week 7 he managed to tally 31 receptions for 400 yards, 3 touchdowns and 12.9 YPR. Pearsall spent much of last season behind established Niners Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel and Jauan Jennings, but should see an increased role in 2025 with Samuel traded and Aiyuk returning from a knee injury.

Receivers I highlighted had some bad injury luck, which makes it hard to fully grade my list. On the one hand, I nailed highlighting Roman Wilson because he was the Steelers pick in the third round. Unfortunately an injury during training camp delayed his development and he only saw five snaps for the entire season. Similarly, former Pitt Panther Bub Means only appeared in seven games before being shut down for the season.

However, I nailed the Jalen McMillan pick, who saw extended playing time after Chris Godwin went down with injury. He scored the most touchdowns (8) of the receivers I highlighted and played a huge part in the Buccaneers securing a playoff spot.

Lastly, Johnson was a player I wanted to highlight as a Day 3 prospect. He landed in the 7th Round and was a practice squad player all season. Time will tell if he ever rises above that in his career.

Conclusion? I’m still fairly confident in my receiver scouting. The two players I felt best about put up similar stat lines in limited roles while behind a talented collection of receivers. Wilson, I think, can still be a useful player. It’s just tough when you miss the summer as a rookie. Earning a coaching staff’s trust is so crucial to seeing the field as a mid-round pick, and missing time does you no favors. Hopefully I’ll have better injury luck this year.

Interior Defensive Line

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Prospects: T’Vondre Sweat (2nd), Masson Smith (2nd), Ruke Orhorhoro (2nd), Brandon Dorlus (4th), Jaden Crumedy (6th)

Collective Stats: 43 games played, 1,499 snaps, 95 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, 9 QB hits, 4 passes defended, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery

The biggest critique I would have for myself is that three of the five players ended up being selected in Round 2. I strive to give a more diverse representation of prospects and was very Day 2 heavy with my list. That said, last year’s group of prospects was not nearly as deep as this year’s defensive line group, so I’ll cut myself some slack.

Sweat was far and away the best player in this group and he juiced the stats quite a bit. Sweats 765 snaps — including special teams — nearly doubled the next closest prospect (Smith played 395 snaps) and it turns out that drafting the biggest dude in the draft to play nose tackle for your team can pay dividends. He put together a strong season, quieting any concerns about his athleticism. When you’re 6’4 and 366 pounds nose tackle, the lesson we should learn is we can forgive a slow 40-time and limited jumping ability if the tape is as good as Sweat’s was.

Maason Smith had the most sacks of this group (3.0) in a limited role and is currently in line to start for the Jaguars, even if they draft a defensive tackle like Mason Graham. The same can be said of Atlanta’s Ruke Orhorhoro after they released longtime starter Grady Jarrett. Dorlus and Crumedy will look to see if they can increase their snap counts this year for the Falcons and Panthers, respectively.

This is another group where I’m fairly pleased with how things shook out. Having three projected as starters in their second year is a solid hit rate, though each being a second rounder makes that a little more obvious. We’ll test my eye for talent this year with the defensive interior being one of the deepest positions in this draft.

Edge Rushers

Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images

Prospects: Chris Braswell (2nd), Marshawn Kneeland (2nd), Adisa Isaac (3rd), Xavier Thomas (5th), Cedrick Johnson (6th), Gabriel Murphy (UDFA)

Collective Stats: 68 games played, 1,347 snaps, 54 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 20 QB hits, 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovered, 3 passes defended

This group is a tough beat in what was considered to be a very weak class. Chris Braswell had the highest snap count (534), followed by Kneeland (298 snaps) and Thomas (231), but none of these players was given a major role in 2024.

I’ll hang my hat on saying that Thomas was the player in the group who was most ready to make an impact and he led the group in sacks (2.5) and finished with half as many QB hits (4) as Braswell, despite playing half the snaps.

Isaac dealt with injuries and got the typical Baltimore rookie edge rusher season of watching in the wings. We’ll rule him an incomplete for now.

I’m not sure what much to learn from this group. None of these players were players I would have expected to be starters in year one, and so their limited playing time isn’t all that surprising. Sometimes a class is just top heavy.

The edge rusher class isn’t much deeper this year and it remains a low-priority for the Steelers with TJ Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig solidified at the top of the depth chart.

Offensive Line

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Tackle Prospects: Kingsley Suamataia (2nd), Caedan Wallace (3rd), Kiran Amegadje (3rd), Tylan Grable (6th), Frank Crum (UDFA)

Collective Stats (Tackles): 40 games played, 692 snaps

IOL Prospects: Christian Haynes (3rd), Tanor Bortolini (4th), Huter Nourzad (5th), Jacob Monk (5th), Sataoa Laumea (6th)

Collective Stats (IOL): 62 games played, 1,137 snaps

Mileage may vary on how successful you think I was with offensive line prospects. On the one hand, all of my highlighted players made their teams and several saw playing time. On the other hand, these players played some of the fewest snapcounts, especially the tackles.

Tackle was a position we were predicting the Steelers to target early in the 2024 draft, but I thought the Steelers could have benefited from double dipping. It’s hard to say right now if any of these tackles would have been the right call. All but Suamatia played 145 snaps or fewer. Suamataia was projected as a developmental project, but saw early playing time for the Chiefs and was yanked when his early struggles didn’t mesh with their championship aspirations. Amegadje was also rough in his limited playing time, but he was forced into playing time due to injuries the Bears suffered on the line. Returning from injury himself, he struggled, but was never ideally supposed to play in his first season.

Guard didn’t fair much better. Laumea and Bortolini both eclipsed 365 snaps, but Haynes (234), Nourzad (116), and Monk (43) saw most of their work in special teams or filling in for injury.

My biggest miss was not including Mason McCormick, a player I thought was a Day 2 level talent, but who fell to the Steelers in the fourth round.

I don’t think I’ll alter much in my approach. Day 2 and Day 3 linemen tend not to start right away, if ever. If we see more from them this season, I can revisit.