Lack of need at TE comes during good year for Steelers

Since selecting Heath Miller with the No. 30 overall pick in 2005, the Pittsburgh Steelers have drafted a tight end in the first three rounds on just one occasion.

In 2007, they used a third-round pick on Matt Spaeth. In the dozen drafts that followed, only Jesse James in 2015 and Zach Gentry last year merited even a fifth-round selection.

Thanks to the free-agent signing of Eric Ebron, that streak should live on for one more year.

With Steelers tight ends generating some of the worst numbers in the NFL last season, Ebron was signed to a two-year, $12 million contract with the anticipation the six-year veteran will return to his 2018 Pro Bowl form.

Ebron caught a career-high 66 passes for 750 yards and 13 touchdowns that season. Steelers starter Vance McDonald also had his best year that season: 50 receptions for 610 yards and four touchdowns.

In theory, the Steelers have a chance to use McDonald and Ebron in two tight-end formations, something they rarely could do last season with young quarterbacks Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges under center.

Tight ends on the Steelers roster, a group that included Gentry and since-departed Nick Vannett and Xavier Grimble, combined for 53 catches, 408 yards and three scores. Consider that, individually, 10 NFL tight ends caught more passes, 21 had more receiving yards and 18 found the end zone more frequently.

The Ebron signing not only improves the position, it allows the Steelers to address other offensive areas — wide receiver, running back, offensive line — early in the draft. And it comes in a year when the tight end class is considered one of the weak spots in the draft.

NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein ranked 11 positions in terms of depth, and tight end landed at No. 10, finishing ahead of only interior offensive line.

“We may see just three tight ends taken within the first three rounds,” Zierlein said. “Average starters to good backups will be available in Rounds 4 and 5, but it’s not a deep group in general.”

NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah has just one tight end ranked in his overall top 50, Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet. In a mock draft ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. released Tuesday, he had just two tight ends going in the first two rounds: Kmet to the Chicago Bears at No. 43 and Dayton’s Adam Trautman to the Green Bay Packers at No. 62.

“He’s somebody with that big catch radius,” Jeremiah said about Kmet. “He’s tough to tackle. Big, physical and strong. He’s good in the run game. He can create some movement there and help you. So he’s a nice two-way tight end.”

Jeremiah once had Florida Atlantic’s 6-foot-5, 243-pound Harrison Bryant competing with Kmet and Trautman to be the first tight end taken.

“He’s somebody who has got some burst and some juice,” Jeremiah said. “Real athletic, easy mover, better in the run game than I anticipated he would be. Not quite as heavy and not quite as big as Trautman (6-5, 255) and Kmet (6-6, 262). But he’s somebody who can give a little more athleticism in there.”

At the NFL Combine, held a few weeks before the Ebron signing, the Steelers conducted a formal 18-minute interview with Missouri’s Albert Okwuegbunam. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.49 seconds, the fastest time at his position, while measuring 6-5, 258 pounds.

“I like to stretch the field,” Okwuegbunam said at the Combine. “I like using my speed to my advantage. I love when coaches have the confidence to let me stretch the field. Being a tight end, I feel like that is a big thing I can add to create mismatches and add that element to the game.”