Author: Ryan Parish

Bickley and Parish share their final thoughts on the Steelers 2025 draft, ask what we should expect from quarterback Will Howard, and project the defensive line rotation for the upcoming season.

The Steelers’ 2025 roster is finally starting to take shape following the conclusion of the NFL Draft. In this week’s Read & React, Ryan and Ryland take one last look at the Steelers’ haul before diving into how some of those picks might’ve shuffled the depth chart at two positional groups.

Now that everything is said and done, what are your overall thoughts about the Steelers’ draft? If you could change one pick, what would you have done differently?

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

RB: I gave this draft a B+ back when we did BTSC staff grades at the end of Day 3, and my knee-jerk reaction then is about the same as my thoughts now. This isn’t a flashy draft or one that solves every problem that the Steelers had last season, but the top five picks all have fairly defined roles right away, and seventh-rounders Carson Bruener and Donte Kent look, at the very least, like they have the potential to be quality special-teamers early-on.

As I wrote on Saturday, it’s a “foundational” draft full of great scheme fits. The team might not get a playoff win out of it this year, but it’s a forward-thinking haul that builds a strong base for future seasons. It’s hard to complain about good additions to the trenches and a starting-caliber running back born to play in an Arthur Smith offense.

The Steelers didn’t solve the quarterback problem in the draft, but this wasn’t the year to do so. That doesn’t hurt their grade.

Look, the concept of draft grades immediately after the fact has been universally hated ever since it became a “thing,” and I get it. But I promise you, every writer tasked with “grading” drafts understands that these can and will change down the road. If you’re reading opinion articles about the NFL and don’t want opinions, I don’t know what to tell you.

With that out of the way, the one pick I’m still not sure about is Ohio State edge rusher Jack Sawyer in the fourth round. I see the vision — he’s a strong, run-defending outside linebacker who is a nice alternative to Nick Herbig, whose game is built on quickness and pass-rushing, on the Steelers depth chart. Sawyer also offers, presumably, more special teams ability than Preston Smith did last year.

But spending a fourth-round pick on an OLB4 feels a bit rich to me given that there were still good wide receivers, defensive backs, and offensive linemen on the board who would fill bigger needs this season or next. Instead, the Steelers — a team with a good number of roster holes — added to their biggest strength.

I know Sawyer was graded as a Day 2 talent by the vast majority of analysts, but I’m a bit lower on his game. He just doesn’t offer a lot of quickness, bend, or speed-to-power coming off the edge, and the worrying measurables (sub-32” arms) don’t help.

But don’t get me wrong — he’s a high-effort player, an above-average run-stopper, and reportedly a high-character individual. He’s not a horrible pick in the fourth, and if the Steelers suffer another injury-heavy year at edge rusher, it’ll be nice to have Sawyer on the roster.

But every year there are plenty of run-stopping depth edges available for cheap in free agency. This isn’t exactly a rare NFL archetype. I think the Steelers should’ve gone in a different direction at that pick — especially cornerback, where it’s a lot harder to build quality depth. Edge rusher would’ve made more sense later on Day 3.

I’ll admit that’s a lot of ink spilled about a draft selection I “get” but don’t necessarily love. But every Day 3 Steelers pick outside of Will Howard and Yahya Black came with a decently-sized list of players I would’ve preferred at that spot. That’s why I can’t — (bold, underlined, italicized) in my opinion — give this otherwise very solid draft an “A” grade.

I’ll finish up this section with one more side tangent: While I don’t think non-draft roster moves should factor into draft grades, there are a few worth taking into context that I believe make this Steelers’ draft haul look better than it is on paper.

Obviously, there’s the D.K. Metcalf trade. There were some good receivers available at pick 52 (which the Steelers traded for the former Seahawk), but Metcalf was clearly the best “pick” there.

Then there’s the post-draft Robert Woods signing. Sure, Jalen Royals or Tory Horton would’ve more fun as Day 3 picks, but Woods is the sort of cheap, veteran underneath option (and good blocker) the Steelers needed to fill out this room over the summer.

And while I’m not a fan of the event that Aaron Rodgers is these days, add him to the Pittsburgh quarterback room and tell me that this Rodgers/Metcalf/George Pickens/Pat Freiermuth/Jaylen Warren/Kaleb Johnson offense won’t be a major improvement over what we saw last year as long as the offensive line is, you know, OK at least.

Finally, the Steelers’ undrafted free agent class looks like it might be Omar Khan’s best yet from top to bottom. Iowa defensive back Sebastian Castro is a good player who could legitimately challenge for a roster spot this season.

The TL;DR: B+. Good draft. Training camp can’t get here soon enough.

RP: As Bickley points out, draft grades are highly subjective. They’re essentially analysts looking at the mocks they’ve seen and conducted, and asking if the team addressed perceived areas of need with the players that the analyst likes at the price they like.

To me, an “A-grade” draft is when a team gets three starters and at least one or two role players. Most drafts start as a “B” and then move up or down. When BTSC gave out our draft grades, I went with a “B” because the Steelers should have two starters out of this draft at minimum. Derrick Harmon and Kaleb Johnson should each see plenty of playing time in 2025 given the state of the roster. I don’t see Jack Sawyer or Yahya Black as eventual starters, but they both fit the scheme and fill a role. All in all, it was a very Steelers draft with no major risks taken. Whether you think that’s a good or bad thing will vary. I mostly see it as a positive.

While I would have gone a different direction with the team’s seventh-round picks, I’m not adjusting the Steelers’ grades based on them, and I’m not going to nitpick those picks for this exercise. If there was any pick I’d consider changing, I’d have to agree with Bickley and look at that fourth-round pick of Jack Sawyer.

To be clear, I don’t think Sawyer is a bad pick. Teammates and Ohio State staff have raved about his character and leadership, and he had a knack for finding the ball in big moments. That’s something the Steelers value and preach to their defense.

Adding Sawyer to the team gives the Steelers a sound and willing run defender who is better suited to spell T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith on early downs than Nick Herbig is. Sawyer has 20 pounds on Herbig and plays with more power, meaning he’s less likely to get washed out of the play. Bringing him in will also allow the Steelers to keep Herbig fresh as a situational pass rusher. Should one of the starters miss time due to injury, a Sawyer and Herbig platoon hopefully alleviates a lot of the pain the Steelers would endure in that scenario.

That said, if there were any pick to change, it has to be that one. I’m not taking perfect scheme fits, Harmon and Johnson, off this team. The same goes for Yahya Black. The Steelers all but telegraphed they’d be double-dipping on the defensive line if they could snag Harmon in the first, and Black ended up being that guy. A nose tackle with more motor than he’s given credit for, Black feels like a perfect fit of value and need.

That leaves us Sawyer. While we don’t have any testing numbers to verify it, Sawyer doesn’t appear to be the most explosive athlete on tape. And while he’s bigger than Herbig when it comes to height and weight, both players have sub-32” arms. That isn’t the end of the world, but it gives them one more obstacle to overcome when they’re competing against offensive tackles the NFL has mostly standardized into having 34” arms.

Like Bickley, I think the Steelers could have found value elsewhere, even if I’m higher on the pick than most. The Steelers would have been drafting for depth no matter where they turned, but offensive line, cornerback and receiver are all groups I would have looked to first.

The offensive line’s starters seem set for 2025, but ask any Steelers fan how thrilled they were with the tackle play in 2024. If that doesn’t sell it enough for you, consider that the trenches are some of the most physical interactions on a football field. It’s rare for a team to escape a season without any injuries to the line when the job description requires having several 300-plus-pound men colliding with each other repeatedly.

Iowa State’s Jalen Travis went four picks after Sawyer and would have been a good scheme fit. On the interior, Marcus Mbow was projected to be a Day 2 pick as a college tackle likely set to become a guard in the league. The Steelers could have used upgraded depth at both spots.

Receiver had an even wider range of talent available. Some notable names still on the board at pick 123: Elic Ayomanor, Jalen Royals, Tory Horton, and Jaylin Lane. The Steelers likely look at the draft like they are adding two receivers with D.K. Metcalf and Roman Wilson returning after essentially reshirting his rookie season. Still, with Pickens and Metcalf running similar route concepts, Wilson unproven, and the rest of the receivers on the roster serving niche roles, it feels like an opportunity to strengthen the group against injury and future departures was missed.

Lastly, the Steelers have resisted investing in their cornerback room for far too long, especially in the slot. Sure, they drafted Joey Porter Jr. with a second-round pick in 2023, but they’ve seemed content to make up the rest of the room with castoffs, fading veterans, and undrafted free agents. You could argue there are few fourth-round corners who would make an immediate difference, but I’d posit they’d have a better shot than a seventh-round player.

The Steelers were clearly focused on stopping the run with their draft, which makes their refusal to address the slot corner role even more confusing. Like it or not, modern offenses run predominantly out of the shotgun and pistol formations.

The rise in RPO usage has made it even rarer for teams to line up in their “base” defense because they have to adjust to offenses being able to run or pass from formations that traditionally signaled a pass was coming. That’s made slot corner a starting position in the modern NFL, and finding one that can tackle in the run game and still be average or better in coverage should be at the top of the team’s priority list. So far, Pittsburgh’s front office has clearly disagreed with me on that sentiment.

The TL;DR: The Steelers picked some good players, and there is nothing to be mad about. However, they may come to find drafting a rotational edge piece might have been a luxury given the talent that was still on the board at other perceived areas of need.

What should Steelers fans’ expectations be for quarterback Will Howard?

Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images

RP: I’ve already seen the fanbase start to go a little overboard with their hopes for Howard. Some fans and media personalities have compared him to Ben Roethlisberger and even, mystifyingly, Josh Allen.

I don’t want to rain on Howard’s parade, and I’m not arrogant enough to proclaim what his future will be one way or the other. But it does seem unfair to put such lofty comparisons on a player drafted in the sixth round. Can we be excited about how Howard’s college career ended — with a national championship and Howard playing some of his best ball — but still acknowledge the NFL largely looked at him and said they do not see an NFL starter?

Howard has intriguing size at 6’4 and 236 pounds. As a runner, he projects as a quarterback who can be utilized in the running game, but is probably best suited for short-yardage concepts that utilize the power in his frame. Justin Fields he is not.

As a passer, he has mostly looked like a player who needs to see a receiver get open before he throws it. At Kansas State, he spent three years as a spot starter and failed to complete more than 59.8 percent of his passes while never attempting more than 199 passes in a season. In his first full season as a starter in 2023, Howard completed just 60.9% of his throws. For what it’s worth, that’s worse than Jalen Milroe, whose accuracy was widely criticized.

Things got drastically better once he transferred to Ohio State. I think the talent around him — his teammates and playcaller Chip Kelly — deserves some of the credit for his completion percentage jumping 12 points in the 2024 regular season, but Ohio State’s offensive system seemed to finally click into place for Howard in the playoffs. Over his final four games, he managed Ohio State’s offense admirably with eight touchdowns, while averaging 287 passing yards and throwing just two interceptions.

That would have seemed unlikely after the team lost their regular season finale against unranked rival Michigan 13-10. That loss kept them out of the Big Ten championship and nearly out of the playoffs altogether.

It’s a credit to Howard that he came out and played some of the best ball of his life under those circumstances.

But can he parlay that into being the Steelers’ next franchise quarterback? I’d temper those expectations, but I do love that he genuinely appears thrilled to be drafted by Pittsburgh. And hey, crazier things have happened.

If Aaron Rodgers does end up signing, I wouldn’t expect Howard to play much unless the veteran quarterback is injured or the Steelers find themselves out of playoff contention by November.

If the Steelers don’t sign Rodgers, that changes things some, but not drastically. Knowing how the Steelers have operated in the past, Howard would have to be a revelation during the preseason to supplant Mason Rudolph by Week 1. As much as Tomlin and the Steelers say they don’t “seek comfort,” their previous actions at quarterback indicate they’ll defer to the most tenured or decorated quarterback first. Pickett didn’t start right away, and the Steelers trotted out Trubisky for multiple losses before giving Rudolph the nod in 2023. I’d expect it to play out the same with Howard.

Ultimately, Steelers fans should be happy the Steelers took a high-character guy who should be a positive addition to the weekly prep the quarterbacks must do for the offense. If he turns out to be anything more, the Steelers will be playing with House money. For now, hope for the best and start scouting the 2026 quarterback class.

The Steelers have shaken up their defensive line room this offseason. How do the rookies fit into the rotation? And what does the depth look like entering 2025?

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

RB: The Steelers’ defensive line room went from a concern entering the season to a group with enough talent that the team released nose tackle Montravius Adams two days after the draft to give him a better shot at sticking on the roster somewhere else.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here. It’s a good D-line rotation but it doesn’t look like one of the NFL’s best just yet.

Funny enough, there are only three 53-man roster “locks,” in the truest sense of the word, on the D-line right now: Cameron Heyward, Keeanu Benton, and the rookie Derrick Harmon. That’ll be the team’s 3-4 front as well, with coach Karl Dunbar saying over the weekend that the team likes Benton staying at nose tackle and Harmon (as well as rookie Yahya Black) playing 4-technique. Obviously, any of those three of those names can start in sub packages as well.

After that, it’s a list of solid depth players who have varying but fairly similar shots at a roster spot. Here’s a rough ranking below:

• Daniel Ekuale
• Yahya Black
• DeMarvin Leal
• Esezi Otomewo
• Dean Lowry
• Isaiahh Loudermilk
• Logan Lee
• Domenique Davis
• Jacob Slade

The Steelers tend to keep seven defensive linemen on their 53-man roster, even if that number can fluctuate slightly from year to year.

If that’s the case, what four names do the Steelers keep in addition to Heyward, Benton and Harmon? That story will be written over training camp and the preseason so I won’t try and predict it, but I am pretty confident it’ll be a close battle. There aren’t any high-pedigree names here who might have a bit more sway. Ekuale’s deal is just one year, $2.8 million. Black is a sixth-rounder. Leal has one career sack in three seasons, etc. etc.

Each player’s role will be an interesting variable to watch. Ekuale and Black are two-gapping run-stuffers. Leal, on the other hand, is an athletic gap-shooter. He looked to be moving into a more hybrid DE/OLB role last year before his injury, but that spot as a big EDGE is in question following the Jack Sawyer pick (they are very different players, though).

Still, I’d argue Leal, when healthy, could be the name to surprise out of this D-line group. Don’t forget his promising preseason last year.

Otomewo, Lowry, and Loudermilk are classic long, 3-4 defensive ends, while Lee has a similar build but looked miscast as a nose tackle last year before his injury. Back healthy in 2025, the former sixth-rounder is another name to watch.

It’s a crowded room. I understand the team’s release of Adams, but his first-step quickness and ability to play nose tackle would’ve been a nice skill set to keep around. But if the top three of Heyward, Benton, and Harmon can stay healthy in 2025, I think the competition behind them will result in a solid group of depth pieces making the final roster.

Join in on Steelers R&R by sharing your takes on this week’s topics. What are your thoughts on the Pittsburgh draft haul? Any picks you would’ve handled differently? Thoughts on the quarterback and D-line rooms? Let us know in the comments! Feel free to pitch future questions in the comment section or on Twitter/X: tag @_Ryland_B or @RyanParishMedia.