It’s a good year to need a defensive lineman — that much is well-known by now. The wealth of top talents and the extreme depth of starting quality players should allow anybody who wants a defensive lineman to get one. Some will be tempted to think that means it’s okay to wait until the second or third round to address positions with less depth. That might end up being a mistake that the Pittsburgh Steelers can’t afford to make.
According to ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller, this is a historic class of defensive linemen, and there is also expected to be a historic run on them in the first round.
“Building the defensive line is huge, and this is the draft class to do that,” Miller said via NFL Live on ESPN. “I checked right before I came on the show, guys. I have 31 defensive ends and defensive tackles in my top 100 players. That has never happened in the 15 years I’ve been covering the draft…We might see 10 to 12 picks in the first round that are spent just on the defensive line because what Philadelphia has done.”
The Eagles’ philosophy of building through the trenches paid off in a big way, as they dismantled Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending Super Bowl champs. It’s a copycat league, and some organizations are bound to shift their philosophies as a result of what happened.
As the pendulum shifted to smaller defensive players who can run fast and cover for many years to combat spread offenses and more passing than ever, things are now swinging back the other way, with running games making a comeback. As a result, teams that have the best trench play are best set up to compete in the immediate future.
If the Steelers really value getting a defensive lineman, which I think they clearly do, then they can’t wait to take one. Just look at the WR class last year for a similar situation.
The deepest group last year, by far, were the receivers. Miller had 19 WRs in his top 100 last year compared to 31 defensive linemen this year. At first glance, waiting until the second or third round to draft one might seem okay, but consider this. There were already 10 wide receivers drafted by the 50th pick last year and 16 in the top 100.
The Steelers had a big need at WR, but by the time they addressed the position in the third round, the talent pool was significantly depleted. They can’t afford that to happen with the defensive line.
If 10-12 defensive linemen are expected to go in the first round, then we can probably expect at least 20-25 to go in the top 100, and maybe more because of what the Eagles did. Then you have to consider that the Steelers have a particular type of defensive lineman that fits their needs. They typically draft D-linemen who are at least 6035, 280 pounds with at least 32-inch arms, and that is on the smaller end of things as players continue to get bigger over time.
Among the 31 players that Miller cited, there are a bunch of tweener 3-techs, 4-3 defensive ends, and edge rushers who don’t fit what the Steelers need. The type they are after is much more rare.
With Cameron Heyward nearing the end of his career and Larry Ogunjobi likely to be gone this offseason, it would almost feel irresponsible not to address the position in the first round. And if you checked out my 1.0 mock draft over the weekend, you’d see that I had them using their first and third-round picks to address the defensive line.
