The Steelers may want to make a draft-day deal.
Pittsburgh is looking to trade up in the first round, according to a report from ESPN, which cites unidentified league sources. The team is “exploring the best ways to address” its defensive needs, the report says.
Of the teams making calls to potentially move up the draft board tonight, one of the notable ones is the Pittsburgh Steelers, per league sources. Pittsburgh not usually a draft-day mover. But Steelers have defensive needs and are exploring best ways to address them.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 25, 2019
The Steelers finished last season with a 9-6-1 record and missed the playoffs. They currently hold the 20th overall pick.
“In professional football, NFL football, the best way is to draft and keep your own,” Pittsburgh general manager Kevin Colbert said this week. “It’s a team game, it’s something that we try to draft the right people and if we like what we are seeing keep them in the mix and plug in the free agent where the free agent works.
“We always talk about the one, two, and three, those players should be significant players that we draft and if we don’t have those guys work out the way you predicted they would, then that creates an issue where you may have to sign more free agents than you liked.”
Colbert said the team will “always believe in building through the draft.”
“I think you see more of that happening throughout the National Football League,” Colbert said. “Teams believe in the same type of thing because there are less free agents available and sometimes that creates, really, a better market for some of the people to make it to free agency that we’d like to engage in.”
The Steelers signed quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to a two-year, $68 million extension earlier this week. The six-time Pro Bowl player was originally drafted by the team in 2004 has spent his entire 15-year career in Pittsburgh.
“The people we draft, the longer we can keep them off the field the better for them historically,” Colbert said. “You really want to go in with these players and delay them getting on the field as long as you can because over time I think Coach would get comfortable with what they can do. But to have them step out and play, more often than not I think it is more detrimental to the player and if he loses his confidence early it’s usually not returnable.”
The Steelers allowed 22.5 points per game, which was tied for 16th in the NFL.