NFL Draft preview: With 5 tight ends on roster, Steelers can focus offensive needs elsewhere

Given their recent emphasis on the position in the NFL Draft, it’s no coincidence the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t conduct a top-30 visit with any tight end prospects this offseason.

The 2021 draft began a three-year run in which the Steelers used a pick on a tight end, including two on the second day. Connor Heyward, a sixth-round selection in 2022 as a hybrid player, was sandwiched between Pat Freiermuth (second round, 2021) and Darnell Washington (third round, 2023).

The Steelers also entered the offseason with special teams contributor Rodney Williams on the roster, and they added veteran MyCole Pruitt, who had a prior working relationship with new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, in free agency.

With such stability and numbers at tight end, the Steelers can focus their offensive needs on tackle, center and wide receiver when the draft commences April 25.

And that’s probably a good thing.

“This,” ESPN analyst Field Yates said recently, “is not going to be a generational tight end class.”

The class of 2024 boasts one elite prospect, Georgia’s Brock Bowers, and a handful of other tight ends who may not hear their names called until the third round at the earliest. Consider that NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah has Bowers as the only tight end listed among his top 50 prospects.

Contrast that to last season when six tight ends were selected in the first two rounds, including Buffalo’s Dalton Kincaid and Detroit’s Sam LaPorta.

“After last year’s tight end class featured multiple standouts and excellent depth, there was never a doubt this year’s class would pale in comparison,” NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein wrote in his positional rankings.

Zierlein gave three tight ends starting grades: Bowers, Texas’ Ja’Tavion Sanders and Ohio State’s Cade Stover.

“There is adequate middle-round depth available,” Zierlein wrote, “but it won’t run as deep as teams might like, and there are more question marks than usual with tight ends this year.”

Had Bowers been eligible for the draft last year, he arguably would have been the first tight end taken. A second-team All-American and first-team SEC player in his first two seasons at Georgia, Bowers capped his collegiate career with a third strong season.

Bowers became the first player to win the Mackey Award, given to the nation’s top tight end, in back-to-back seasons. He led Georgia with 56 catches and totaled 714 receiving yards and six touchdowns in 10 starts. Bowers missed four games because of tight-rope surgery, the same procedure that sidelined former Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett late last season.

“He’s one of the best 10 players in the draft,” said Jeremiah, who has Bowers listed as his No. 7 overall prospect and compares him to the San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle. “Everything he does is so easy. He can go get it. He can climb the ladder and go get the ball and really run after the catch. That stuff is what makes him special.”

The last tight end to carry such a high grade was Kyle Pitts, who went fourth overall in 2021 to Atlanta — when Smith was entering his first year as head coach. Pitts had 1,000 yards as a rookie but combined for barely that many yards the next two years.

“He was as talented as any tight end that I have ever evaluated,” Jeremiah said of Pitts. “You’re still dependent on the position of the quarterback to (determine) what you can get out of him.”

Former New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum has concerns about Bowers and where he fits into a team’s offense. At 6-foot-3, 243 pounds, Bowers is a bit undersized for the position.

“He is really good, but I don’t know how he’s going to block on the front side,” Tannenbaum said. “If I’m a defense, I treat him like a receiver and use a nickel (to cover). Don’t worry about him blocking. He’s more of a receiver than displaying someone at the line of scrimmage.”

Penn State’s Theo Johnson could be selected in the third round. He packs 259 pounds on his 6-6 frame, yet he posted the second-fastest 40-yard dash time among tight ends at the NFL Combine. He caught 34 passes for 341 yards and tied for the team lead with seven receiving touchdowns as a senior.

“He has a big catch radius,” Yates said. “There was a play watching him this year where I saw him backpack a defensive back for 10 yards, just carried him. He’s a big, physical, intriguing player.”