O-Line

Teams rarely pick Cs in the first round of the draft because you essentially can't give a C a 1st year option. The 1st year option for OL is all one group. So if you option a C, you have to pay him as a very good LT. Which is crazy.

And in this scenario, the Rats wouldn't just be picking a C in the 1st. They'd be picking one at 14!

It's hard to draft a C at the end of the first because the positional value is so low. I highly doubt they'd get one in the middle of the 1st.

I don't know what the C class looks like this year. But I think it's unlikely there would be more than one off the board by the time they pick in the 2nd (45). This is usually around where good / very good Cs get picked. For reference, Humphrey was picked at 63. We picked Frazier at 51.

 

I don't want us to draft any of these positions early.

I wouldn't necessarily hate a TE pick. Would require us to trade PF. Flip for some draft capital this year (or next?).

We clearly can't take a C early. Only one on the field at a time and we hopefully will have Frazier for a long, long time.

RB wouldn't be terrible I guess...but I wouldn't like it. Probably not best value for us because (1) we're already paying 2x RBs on moderate 2nd contracts and (2) drafting a RB in the 1st isn't great value since the position keeps getting devalued...so it's hard for RB to be BPA when you consider positional value IMO.

 

I'd take DL too.

Maybe even ILB...although that's not really a high value position.

If there's a high impact S, we could use that.

We're in the classic Steelers position of not having a glaring need. Which I like because hopefully it means we don't reach...although I really worry that Rooney won't be able to resist drafting a QB in the 1st when the draft is in the Burgh.