(SportsNetwork.com) –<\/p>\n
1 (15) – Ryan Shazier, OLB, Ohio State; 2 (46) – Stephon Tuitt, DE, Notre Dame; 3 (97) – Dri Archer, RB, Kent State; 4 (118) – Martavis Bryant, WR, Clemson; 5 (157) – Shaquille Richardson, CB, Arizona; 5 (173) – Wesley Johnson, OT, Vanderbilt; 6 (192) – Jordan Zumwalt, ILB, UCLA; 6 (215) – Daniel McCullers, DT, Tennessee; 7 (230) – Rob Blanchflower, TE, UMass<\/p>\n
Top Picks Analysis: The Steelers went all in on the front seven, snaring Ohio State linebacker Ryan Shazier at No. 15 overall, and following that up with Notre Dame five-technique Stephon Tuitt, a potential value in the second round.<\/p>\n
Shazier is lightning fast and projects as an all-around linebacker but he will probably need to be protected a bit by a nose tackle who can occupy multiple blockers.<\/p>\n
Tuitt was regarded as a top-15 talent heading into his junior season with the Fighting Irish but he had an injury-plagued season and was out of shape for much of it. If Tuitt can get his body back on track, Pittsburgh may have something.<\/p>\n
Third-round running back Dri Archer is a scatback with return ability and a nice complement to big bodies like Le’Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount.<\/p>\n
Best Value Pick: Daniel McCullers, the team’s sixth-round choice out of Tennessee, is a massive defensive tackle who has the raw strength to be a two- down beast as long as he improves on his technique and develops more dedication to the game.<\/p>\n
Questionable Calls: The 15th overall slot was probably a bit too high for a player like Shazier, who the Steelers project inside. He’ll need plenty of help from players like McCullers to keep opposing guards off of him at the second level.<\/p>\n
Summary: Pittsburgh needed to get younger and more athletic on defense and the team took steps in that direction although the top two choices both come with significant risk.<\/p>\n
FINAL GRADE: B-<\/p>\n
Undrafted rookie free agent signings: C Chris Elkins, Youngstown State; TE Eric Waters, Missouri; DE Josh Mauro, Stanford; LB Howard Jones, Shepherd; OL Will Simmons, East Carolina; QB Brendon Kay, Cincinnati; DL Ethan Hemer, Wisconsin; QB Terrance Owens, Toledo; S Jake DeMedal, St. Francis; DB Devon Carrington, Stanford; OT Kaycee Ike, Alabama-Birmingham; DT Roy Philon, Louisville<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(SportsNetwork.com) – 1 (15) – Ryan Shazier, OLB, Ohio State; 2 (46) – Stephon Tuitt, DE, Notre Dame; 3 (97) – Dri Archer, RB, Kent State; 4 (118) – Martavis Bryant, WR, Clemson; 5 (157) – Shaquille Richardson, CB, Arizona; 5 (173) – Wesley Johnson, OT, Vanderbilt; 6 (192) – Jordan Zumwalt, ILB, UCLA; 6 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[143,142,144],"class_list":["post-18692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}