Pittsburgh Steelers Mock Draft: Finding Starters in Every Round

Even though NFL teams spend a year or longer scouting players to prepare for a given year's draft, the selection process remains very much a crapshoot. Most teams have seven picks—one for each round—while some have more and others have fewer. But it's hard to turn those picks not just into contributors but into starters.

For example, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected nine players in the 2013 NFL draft and six are not on the team's current roster. While the Steelers would love to find a draft's worth of immediate starters, planning on doing so is a fool's errand, a pipe dream.

But aren't mock drafts a pipe dream, too? An exercise like this allows for creativity and experimentation. So, with that in mind, here's a 2017 Steelers mock draft that features only players who could be starters as rookies, whether in Week 1 or as the season progresses.

At the very least, the 2017 draft class is more talent-rich than ever, so it might be the right year for the Steelers to replenish their ranks with players who can make quick impacts.

Round 1

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Round 1, Pick 30: LB Carl Lawson, Auburn

The 2017 NFL draft class is rife with pass-rushing talent, but with the Steelers having a fairly immediate need at edge-rusher, it would behoove them to address the position early. Auburn's Carl Lawson has a strong chance to be available to them with the 30th overall pick—and the skills to be able to make a significant impact as a rookie.

Lawson was a force as a freshman, with 20 combined tackles, 7.5 tackles for a loss and four sacks. But a torn ACL cost him his 2014 and an injured hip limited him to just seven games in the following season. But as a healthy, full-time starter in 2016, he notched 30 of his career 67 tackles, 14 of his 24.5 tackles for a loss and 9.5 of his 14.5 sacks.

Though a bit smaller at 6'2" and 261 pounds, Lawson makes up for this with his combination of speed and power. With James Harrison and Arthur Moats looking likely to move on in 2018, the Steelers could easily rotate Lawson in early in 2017 and transition him to getting a starting nod alongside fellow youngster Bud Dupree. There are durability and health questions Lawson will have to answer to the Steelers' satisfaction, but selecting him at No. 30 would mean the team has no worries about his short- or long-term availability. 

Round 2

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Round 2, Pick 62: CB Desmond King, Iowa

The Steelers will benefit from a draft that features enough talented cornerbacks that starters will linger into the second round and beyond. Their choice in Round 2: Iowa's Desmond King, whose ball skills and natural quickness make up for a relative lack of inherent athleticism.

King spent nearly all four years at Iowa as a starter, totaling 174 combined tackles (9.5 for a loss), 14 interceptions, three interceptions returned for touchdowns and 33 pass breakups. He was also Iowa's primary kick and punt returner from 2015 through 2016, with 56 kickoff returns yielding 1,458 yards and 45 punt returns another 504 yards.

Some teams might prefer King as a safety—he's best when working downhill and makes big, physical tackles—but his route-running skills and preference to press fits the mold as a Pittsburgh cornerback. Veterans like William Gay and Coty Sensabaugh can help teach him the ropes early, leading to King closing out the year starting on the boundary alongside 2016 draft pick Artie Burns.

Round 3

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Round 3, Pick 94: TE Adam Shaheen, Ashland

Round 3, Pick 105 (Compensatory): LB Derek Rivers, Youngstown State

The Steelers again benefit from a talent-rich draft pool and manage to get a tight end who can help boost what is already a very strong offense—Ashland's Adam Shaheen, a Division II standout whose receiving skills can make him an impact player in short order.

Promoted to starter in 2015, Shaheen caught 70 passes for 803 yards and 10 scores as a sophomore and another 57 passes for 867 yards and 16 touchdowns in his junior year. While Shaheen is 6'6" and 278 pounds, his strong suit is receiving, where he has shown great hands and is surprisingly quick and athletic for his size. As such, "he's a pass-catching tight end in a Y-tight end's body," as NFL.com's Lance Zierlein describes him and is actually not much of a blocker.

But that's not why the Steelers would need him or why they would want to draft him. It's the catches, yards and touchdowns they are after; Jesse James and David Johnson will handle the blocking assignments, while Shaheen can catch passes, with Ladarius Green backing him up.

With the second of two draft picks in the third round, the Steelers dip back into the edge-rushing well, taking another small-school prospect, Youngstown State's Derek Rivers.

Rivers is undersized at 6'4" and 248 pounds, but he's quick and athletic, making him best suited for situational pass-rushing duties rather than in run support, particularly early in his career. But he's a proven commodity when getting to the quarterback; he had 14 sacks in 2016, eight in 2015 and 13 in 2014 as well as three straight years with double-digit tackles for loss.

As the Steelers prepare for a future without either James Harrison and Arthur Moats, Rivers can be rotated in and out of the lineup as the season progresses. An edge-rushing crew consisting of Harrison, Moats, Bud Dupree, and in this instance Carl Lawson and Derek Rivers would be a very physically intimidating one indeed.

Round 4

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Round 4, Pick 135: DL Tanoh Kpassagnon, Villanova

The Steelers stick with defense in the fourth round, taking Villanova's Tanoh Kpassagnon. Though billed as a defensive lineman, Kpassagnon can also play inside and outside linebacker, a level of versatility that both helps the Steelers' depth and can get the rookie on the field quickly.

Kpassagnon totaled 45 combined tackles (and 21.5 for a loss) and 11 sacks in 2016 and had three blocked kicks over his last two seasons. Long and explosive with top-tier athleticism, Kpassagnon is nonetheless a fourth-rounder, with raw technique that will need coaching correction.

Still, the Steelers can find a use for him in 2017. His length—which has translated to the aforementioned blocked kicks—could give him a pivotal special teams role. Further, the Steelers' plethora of defensive sub-packages could contain plays that make best use of his positive traits while he continues to hone his technical skill set.

Round 5

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Round 5, Pick 173: RB James Conner, Pitt

Though the Steelers added free agent Knile Davis to their running back depth chart, joining Le'Veon Bell and Fitzgerald Toussaint (among others), they still don't have a true No. 2 to replace DeAngelo Williams. With so many running backs of note available via the draft this year, that's likely where they will turn. And the Steelers can wait until all the way in the fifth round to find the right man for the job: Pitt's James Conner.

Conner, who overcame both Hodgkin lymphoma and a torn ACL to rush 216 times for 1,092 yards and 16 scores in 2016, has the type of downhill, physical style that would be a complement to Bell's vision-and-burst approach and also doesn't encroach into the speed-heavy styles of Toussaint and Davis.

While Conner can catch passes—he had a career-high 21 receptions for 302 yards and four scores—he wouldn't be a third-down back for the Steelers but rather a contrast to Bell. That contrast thus would give him a role to play as a rookie; while that doesn't technically make him a starter, it does make him a key component in the offense, as Williams was over the previous two seasons.

Round 6

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Round 6, Pick 213: WR Damore'ea Stringfellow, Mississippi

The Steelers may not view wide receiver as pressing a need as it first seemed it would be just a month ago. Despite losing Markus Wheaton to free agency, the Steelers could get Martavis Bryant back from indefinite suspension this year and have also added veteran Justin Hunter to add another field-stretching dimension to their after-catch-heavy offense.

With Antonio Brown as the team's top wideout and Eli Rogers, Cobi Hamilton and (a hopefully healthy) Sammie Coates rounding out the receiving corps, the Steelers may be able to put the position off until later in this year's draft. This is a situation in which the draft's deep class at receiver could allow them to find a talented player even in Round 6, someone like Mississippi's Damore'ea Stringfellow.

Stringfellow is another vertical threat, who also has the physical toughness to handle work all over the field. He can leap for the tough catches, though like many work-in-progress receivers he has to get better at route running. While his 2016 numbers don't pop (46 receptions for 716 yards and six scores), they also do not indicate his NFL potential. 

Competition will be a hallmark for the Steelers' receivers not named Brown this summer. Stringfellow can easily emerge as Pittsburgh's third or fourth target option.

Round 7

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Round 7, Pick 248: S Nate Gerry, Nebraska

The Steelers found themselves a gem of a safety in last year's draft, Round 2 pick Sean Davis. Davis eventually took over Robert Golden's starting job halfway through the 2016 season and seems set up to have a productive career in Pittsburgh.

Alongside him is Mike Mitchell, brought aboard as a free agent in 2014. Though Mitchell is under contract through 2018, it's possible the Steelers could be preparing to move on from him after this year, when he'll be closer to 31 years old. He boasts a salary cap hit of over $8 million next year, compared to $1.77 million in dead money to release him, according to Spotrac.

Though that could make the Steelers act with a sense of urgency at the position this year, it's also possible that Pittsburgh could find someone surprisingly capable of making an on-field impact in 2017 on the way to becoming a full-time starter in Mitchell's place. A seventh-round option is Nebraska's Nate Gerry, a four-year starter with 163 career tackles (19 for a loss), 13 interceptions and 19 passes defensed.

A physical specimen with solid ball skills, Gerry does have a few areas of his game that need refined. He's struggled with missed tackles over his career and isn't ideal in coverage without help from other safeties or corners.

His football instincts are strong, though, and those—combined with the inevitable special teams work that is ahead—could help smooth his learning curve. Mitchell has had his fair share of bad plays himself, and if Gerry truly is a quick study, his starting job may not be secure for long.