PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers seem to be targeting a short list of positions in the NFL Draft, and one team insider believes a trade up could be coming to land a major need – but in the second round.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac said in his weekly chat that he believes the team will make a move forward in the second-round of the NFL Draft, if they don’t get a center.
“I think it’s more likely they trade up in the second round if they haven’t used their No. 1 pick on a center,” he wrote.
The Steelers have done their homework on almost all of the top centers in the draft class, bringing in Jackson Powers-Johnson for a pre-draft visit and meeting with Graham Barton and Sedrick Van Pran at the NFL Combine. They had Pat Meyer at Oregon’s Pro Day, Arthur Smith at Duke’s and Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan at Georgia’s.
Despite early belief Powers-Johnson may be gone before the Steelers’ pick, the trend now has him falling into the second round. There may be all of the top centers still on the board by the Steelers first pick at 20, leaving them with options in the second round as well.
Pittsburgh currently picks 51st in the second round, but has two picks in the third round and a fourth-round pick to use as trade bait.
