Youth takes backseat to experience in Steelers draft class

The makeup of the Pittsburgh Steelers draft this weekend took on a different feel, and it had nothing to do with restrictions placed on the organization by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Steelers went with more experienced players, shunning the underclassmen they typically covet when sifting through college prospects.

Five of the six players the Steelers chose over the past two days were upperclassmen, including three redshirt seniors. The only underclassman was running back Anthony McFarland Jr., a redshirt sophomore from Maryland.

General manager Kevin Colbert pointed out the trend to coach Mike Tomlin after the Steelers selected Louisiana guard Kevin Dotson, a redshirt senior, with their second pick of the fourth round.

“We’re going against the grain here,” Colbert said.

The theme continued with sixth-round pick Antoine Brooks Jr., a senior safety who also played at Maryland, and when they finished by taking seventh-rounder Carlos Davis, a redshirt senior defensive tackle from Nebraska.

“There really wasn’t any intention, it was the way it broke for us this year,” Colbert said. “We’re very comfortable with that.”

One day earlier, the Steelers selected Notre Dame’s Chase Claypool, a senior wide receiver, and Charlotte’s Alex Highsmith, a redshirt senior outside linebacker, in the second and third rounds, respectively.

“We always like to catch them a little younger because they are a little fresher,” Colbert said. “But a senior usually comes in with a different maturity level because he’s either finished school or he’s close to finishing school. He’s played that extra year at a college level, which we think benefits these players. We had no plan to do that.”

Circumstances created by the coronavirus pandemic didn’t play a factor, Colbert and Tomlin insisted. With most college pro days canceled, in-house visits to team complexes banned and some players lacking complete physicals, NFL teams had to rely on video chats and old-fashioned film study to evaluate prospects.

The Steelers, in fact, took a risk by selecting Dotson with the No. 135 overall pick. Dotson was not invited to the NFL Combine. The Steelers never saw him run the 40-yard dash, never worked him out or saw a completed physical. The tape, though, convinced Steelers management that Dotson was worth a flier.

“The majority of these guys we’ve known about and have been watching for a couple of years,” Colbert said.

That includes the duo from Maryland. McFarland set the school’s freshman rushing record, then was slowed by a high ankle sprain last fall. Brooks considered leaving school after his junior season, but returned for one final year while filling a hybrid linebacker role that intrigued the Steelers.

It was coincidence, Tomlin said, that his eldest son, Dino, completed his freshman season with the Terrapins and that quarterback coach Matt Canada was Maryland’s offensive coordinator in 2018.

“We have inside information on a lot of our picks in most years,” Tomlin said. “You can draw parallels because of the relationships and make a story out of these two, but the reality is we work our tails off to gather intel on everyone we select. This one just is more obvious from an outside standpoint.”

An analysis of the draft class also shows the Steelers accomplished some of their objectives.

They added a 6-foot-4, 238-pound receiver to the young trio of JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington and Diontae Johnson. McFarland provides 4.44 speed to a running back room that includes starter James Conner and backups Benny Snell and Jaylen Samuels, among others.

In Dotson, the Steelers addressed 11-year veteran Ramon Foster’s retirement, and it could permit the Steelers to keep Matt Feiler at right tackle. The three defensive players taken will provide depth at nose tackle, edge rusher and safety — all areas where the Steelers needed reinforcements.

With only six picks, their fewerst allotment since 2003, the Steelers couldn’t fill every gap, particularly at inside linebacker. Still, they added five experienced college prospects — and a young running back — to the mix.

“It’s been a different process,” Colbert said. “We knew it would be. We knew it would be challenging, but in the end we feel very good about the results — as we do every year.”