A QB with Steelers' 1st pick? ESPN’s Mel Kiper projects team will draft Jalen Hurts

It’s mock draft season — and with no “real” sports seasons going on, NFL Draft projections are arguably getting more publicity than ever.

No one’s mock drafts get more play than Mel Kiper’s, either. And Kiper has quite the eyebrow-raising projection for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first pick in next week’s draft.

Kiper projects the Steelers taking national championship-winning quarterback Jalen Hurts with the No. 49 overall pick. That’s the first choice the Steelers hold after they traded their first-round pick to the Miami Dolphins for Minkah Fitzpatrick in September.

Hurts starred at Alabama and then again at Oklahoma as a graduate transfer after he lost his starting job to the Crimson Tide’s Tua Tagovailoa.

"I have definitely been told by several teams that [Jalen Hurts] will not get out of round two."@MelKiperESPN has Hurts going to the Steelers in his latest mock draft. pic.twitter.com/sdBcJmGL8u

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) April 14, 2020

The Steelers welcome back Ben Roethlisberger in 2020 after their franchise quarterback’s 2019 season was limited to six quarters because of elbow surgery. Roethlisberger is 38 and entering his 17th NFL season, though, and the brief 2019 auditions of potential replacements Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges did not go too well.

Here is Kiper’s written explanation for the Steelers’ selection of Hurts:

“I was asked last week about the possibility of Hurts going in the first round, and I said that he’s likely going on Day 2. Well, Hurts is a hot name right now, and I don’t think he gets out of the second round. Coaches and scouts love Hurts’ intangibles, and he improved his accuracy in his season under Lincoln Riley. He fits in Pittsburgh, where neither Mason Rudolph nor Devlin Hodges showed much while filling in for Ben Roethlisberger, 38, last season.”

Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.