Tim Benz: Best wide receiver available? Or best player available? Opinions vary.

A lot of years in the NFL Draft, the Steelers say that they are taking the best player available when they pick.

A lot of years I don’t believe that. A lot of years I think they take the best possible player at the position of the highest need.

Actually, that’s what I prefer teams do anyway.

But when you don’t have a first-round pick—as the Steelers didn’t this year for the first time since 1967—and you have as many needs as the Steelers do, this strikes me as a year more than ever that the Steelers literally could’ve gone with the “best player available” at any number of positions, and that would’ve made sense.

Running back. Nose tackle. Any of the three offensive line slots. Either inside or outside linebacker.

If they had gone “best player available” for any of those holes, that would’ve made plenty of sense.

It would’ve made plenty of sense at wide receiver, too, if the top-10 players at the position hadn’t been grabbed already by the time the Steelers selected at pick No. 49.

That’s when the Steelers selected Notre Dame wide receiver Chase Claypool. He was the 11th wide receiver to go off the board. Claypool was a guy that CBS Sports had rated as the 74th best player in the draft. ESPN had him at 62nd. NFL.com had him 59th.

It’s pretty clear to me that the Steelers went with the best wide receiver available as opposed to the best player available.

Some would argue if the Steelers even successfully did that, seeing as how Baylor’s Denzel Mims (who was generally rated higher) was still unselected.

Don’t get too hung up on that. When 10 other guys go first, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I’m just wondering who was “beholding” the 11th wide receiver before what would have been the fourth running back in J.K. Dobbins. He’s a guy who had more than 5,000 yards from scrimmage at Ohio State and 43 touchdowns during his career in Columbus.

Despite having the NFL’s best ground game last year, the Baltimore Ravens decided to select Dobbins six picks later. Another running back, Florida State’s Cam Akers, went three picks before that as Todd Gurley’s replacement with the Los Angeles Rams.

Not to mention guys such as Zach Baun (Edge/Wisconsin), Logan Wilson (ILB, Wyoming), and Josh Uche (Edge, Michigan) who may have been less of a reach at their respective positions for the Steelers than Claypool was.

And the Steelers need talent at all of those spots.

I was on board with the Steelers getting a wide receiver in the second or third round of this draft. Going this deep into the talent pool to get one at pick No. 49 with so much potential remaining at other positions of interest, though, shows just how important the Steelers must be presuming that need to be outside on offense.

This mentality should raise our eyebrows.

That either doesn’t speak well of the team’s optimism that JuJu Smith-Schuster can rebound from his poor 2019 and turn himself into the lead-dog wide receiver all of Pittsburgh wanted him to become after Antonio Brown left. Or it speaks to the lack of belief that the team has when hoping to retain his services in free agency after this year ends.

It could also indicate that maybe the Steelers aren’t quite as sold on the “when Ben Roethlisberger comes back, he’ll fix everything” school of thought as they may be posturing. Using their top pick on a wide out indicates to me that the franchise wants to help Roethlisberger as much as it is calculating on him upgrading the rest of the receiving core.

Especially when you consider that the team just signed 6-foot-4 tight end Eric Ebron in free agency. Wasn’t he supposed to be a de facto wide receiver in a tight end’s body anyway?

But Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert insists the Steelers didn’t enter this draft with a “wideout or bust” approach.

“We never go into it looking for a position,” Colbert said Friday night. “We have ideas where strengths are. We have ideas where our wants are. And if they match at certain points, great.

“We were excited that player was available to us. In particular. Not that position. That Chase Claypool the player was available to us.”

After the pick of Claypool, offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner was asked about being willing to take a wide receiver after so many were picked before the Steelers were ready to announce.

“I knew this was a pretty deep draft for wide receivers,” Fichtner said. “You are always hopeful that potentially one of them was going to be there. It just so happens that Chase was there. And I’m awfully glad that he was.”

As he should be. We shouldn’t turn this into a bash session about Claypool. That’s not what I’m trying to do. At 6-foot-4 and 238 pounds, Claypool has great size. He’ll be a red zone threat. He had 13 touchdowns last year to go along with 66 catches and 1,037 yards.

“Waiting wasn’t too bad,” said Claypool. “As long as I went on Day 2, I was going to be happy.”

As I’m sure Steelers fans will be with Claypool as well. Eventually.

In 2020, though? Maybe not so much.

Claypool is scouted as a guy who has size and physicality at the college level that may have made up for a lack of polish and technique that will be exposed in the pros.

That’s not a big deal with the likes of Ebron, Smith-Schuster, Vance McDonald, Diontae Johnson, and James Washington currently ahead of him on the depth chart. So maybe Claypool’s talents are more readily seen in 2021.

I just wonder if the Steelers bypassed some players who would’ve helped more in 2020 as a result.