NFL Draft preview: In lean year for inside linebackers, Steelers can ride with veteran starters

When the Pittsburgh Steelers broke training camp last year, they had three veteran free agents sharing playing time at inside linebacker.

All three were starters elsewhere and provided an ample level of comfort at a spot that was completely retooled that offseason.

“We felt really good about the position,” general manager Omar Khan said.

By the end of the year, two of those players were on season-ending injured reserve. The Steelers resorted to signing three players off the street, including two who were retired, to play snaps down the stretch.

“You just don’t know,” Khan said. “Hopefully, it doesn’t happen again. It was unfortunate.”

The injuries reinforced to Khan that there is no such thing as too much depth at a given position.

Entering offseason workouts, the Steelers still had just one healthy veteran starter from that trio, Elandon Roberts, who had 101 tackles while playing 16 games last season. Cole Holcomb continues to recover from his gruesome left knee injury, and Kwon Alexander remains a free agent. Of the three veterans brought in as late reinforcements, Mykal Walker moved on to Washington, and Myles Jack and Blake Martinez are back on the couch.

The Steelers, though, aren’t sweating the numbers at inside linebacker this offseason. Not after they signed Patrick Queen, who never missed a game in four seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, to a three-year, $41 million contract in free agency.

“We’ve seen a lot of him, he’s seen a lot of us,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “It’s going to be an exciting marriage.”

The Queen signing lessens the chances of the Steelers courting an inside linebacker high in the NFL Draft, a position they last addressed in the first round in 2019, when they traded up 10 spots to select Devin Bush with the No. 10 overall pick.

It’s probably a good thing if history doesn’t repeat itself and not just because Bush never adequately recovered from a torn ACL. Following in the footsteps of the 2023 class, this year’s crop of inside linebackers is lacking in high-end talent.

“It’s not a great off-the-ball linebacker draft,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said.

NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein ranked inside linebacker as the weakest of all position groups.

“Last year, only one off-ball linebacker went in the first round, and we didn’t see another picked until Round 3,” he wrote in his annual evaluation. “This year, I believe it’s unlikely we’ll see a linebacker taken in the top 40 picks.”

Jeremiah has three linebackers ranked in his overall top 50. Texas A&M senior Edgerrin Cooper is the highest rated at No. 26. The others are N.C. State’s Payton Wilson at No. 41 and Michigan’s Junior Colson at No. 44.

The Steelers used the final two days of top-30 visits to bring Wilson and Colson to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. They could be options in the second round when the Steelers hold the No. 51 overall pick.

Wilson spent six seasons at N.C. State and battled through knee and a pair of shoulder injuries early in his college career. The brother of former Pirates pitcher Bryse Wilson, he stayed healthy his final two seasons and punctuated his career by winning the Bednarik and Butkus awards. He had 138 tackles, including 17 1/2 for a loss, and six sacks in 2023.

“He’s a maniac on the football field, one of the most fearless players I’ve seen in the entire draft pool,” ESPN analyst Field Yates said. “He’d hit an oncoming train if he could.”

The drawback is Wilson’s age — he’s already 24 — and the injury history.

Colson left school after his junior season and started 29 games the past two seasons, including all 15 for the national champions in 2023. He led Michigan with 95 tackles last year and won the Lott IMPACT Award, which is based on a player’s integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity.

“When you factor in the character, the leadership, that he’s a rock-solid linebacker, I know some teams have him rated as the top linebacker,” Jeremiah said. “It wouldn’t shock me if he snuck his way into the bottom of the first round.”