Mark Madden: Steelers need to focus on need rather than flash with 1st-round pick

Talk surrounding what the Pittsburgh Steelers do in the upcoming NFL Draft is mostly about stories.

It should be about what helps the Steelers most.

Former Pitt receiver Jordan Addison wants to play with the Steelers to reconnect with quarterback Kenny Pickett. Addison ditched Pitt to get NIL loot at Southern Cal this past season, but the citizens seem willing to overlook that.

Even more heartwarming is the idea of Joey Porter Jr. joining the Steelers. His dad, Peezy Sr., risked his life for the team when he got shot in Denver. Peezy Jr. played cornerback at Penn State. A little grabby. Might get flagged some for interference.

Both Addison and Peezy Jr. are projected as first-round picks.

Here’s betting Peezy Jr. gets drafted when the Steelers pick 17th overall, coach Mike Tomlin’s cronyism with Peezy Sr. trumping Addison’s connection to Pickett. That’s no matter what assistant GM Andy Weidl’s big board says. #BuddySystem

That assumes that either Peezy Jr. or Addison is still there at No. 17.

If Peezy Jr. is available, he’s a lock to get picked. He might be the right selection made for the wrong reason. (If he ultimately switches to safety, as some think, he’s a bad choice.)

If Peezy Jr. and Addison are gone, perhaps the Steelers take Pitt defensive tackle Calijah Kancey. He’s another good story with a dash of recency bias.

Kancey ran a 4.67 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. That’s the fastest time for a defensive tackle since 2006. Kancey weighs 280, so that’s freakish, effectively re-enacting the “chasing the ambulance” scene from “Cocaine Bear” but without cocaine. (They test at the combine.) That sprint obviously makes Kancey the new Aaron Donald.

Kancey’s run appears to be upping his draft stock, even though it’s not often that a defensive tackle has to sprint 40 yards in a game. Most would pass on the chance.

Kancey exemplifies another rarity: A prospect who gains tangibly from being at the combine. The whole thing is mostly unnecessary.

Be here, be there, do this, do that, run, jump, lift, urinate in a cup, answer what’s asked, do what we say when we say. That makes the prospects understand who’s boss. It also gets the media and citizenry buzzing about the NFL, which doesn’t take much.

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If the Steelers draft Kancey, he just has to switch parking lots at the South Side practice site like Pickett did. If everybody could park wherever they want at that facility, stories like this wouldn’t be as good.

If you sense sarcasm and, indeed, an element of mocking in what you’ve read so far, well, there’s no fooling you.

What the Steelers really need to do is take a dominant left tackle such as Ohio State’s Paris Johnson Jr. or Northwestern’s Peter Skoronski. Trading up to make that happen, perhaps by packaging the 17th and 32nd picks, would help the Steelers most. Move last year’s starter, Dan Moore Jr., to guard. Or make him a backup.

But doing that isn’t fun because it’s not drafting an ex-Steeler’s son or the receiver who Pickett used to throw to, or the fast fat guy who would just have to switch parking lots.

All drafting Johnson or Skoronski would do is fill the Steelers’ biggest need, make them better and safeguard their franchise quarterback, who got two concussions as a rookie. How boring.

It’s being suggested that reuniting Pickett and Addison would give the Steelers a combination like Cincinnati has with quarterback Joe Burrow and receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who played college ball together at LSU.

But Pitt isn’t LSU, Pickett isn’t Burrow, and Addison isn’t Chase. It’s like comparing Diet Coke to Dom Perignon.

Burrow and Chase would still be a potent passing combination even if they had been total strangers before winding up with the Bengals.

That said, the Steelers wouldn’t do poorly getting Addison at No. 17. As long as he’s the best pick, not the best story. You can’t have too many weapons in today’s NFL. (But Addison had a bad combine. Let’s see if it hurts him.)