Baltimore Ravens: Ranking each AFC North NFL Draft Class

4. The Pittsburgh Steelers:

The Pittsburgh Steelers had three very strong picks in this draft. Najee Harris is going to be an annoyance to the Ravens and the rest of the division. He’s a special running back that is going to make Pittsburgh a little more dangerous on offense. Kendrick Green was an absolute steal in the third round. That was the help the offensive line desperately needed.

I have no clue how Quincy Roche dropped so far into the draft but getting him in the sixth round was incredible. He was a really good pass rusher at Miami. Those are the highlights of the Steelers draft.

The rest of it didn’t mesh with what I thought they needed. Patt Friermuth gets to stay in Pennsylvania. The Penn State tight end was overrated in this draft process. When he was drafted I had two thoughts. First, they should have prioritized the offensive line after taking a skill position player in round one. Secondly, the Steelers took a tight end that isn’t going to come in and be a game-changer for them.

When the Steelers drafted Buddy Johnson, I didn’t get it. There were better linebackers on the board. That was a reach to me. The Steelers made nine selections. Three of them made sense to me. While Najee Harris made sense in the first round, it felt like the Steelers needed offensive line help a lot more. Drafting Green may not be enough for the offensive line.

The Steelers struck me as a team that didn’t really have a finger on their problems. They didn’t get dramatically better. The Steelers have an extra play-maker. I’ll give them credit for a couple of steals but their other picks didn’t do much for them in my opinion.

The bottom line is that the Steelers watched the AFC North get a lot better around them. The Steelers may look back at this draft and realize that while a couple of things worked out, a lot of it was wasted draft capital. It’s not a bad draft necessarily, it’s just not on the same level as their division rivals.