Pittsburgh Steelers 2020 NFL Draft Grades

The Pittsburgh Steelers have concluded their selections in the 2020 NFL Draft. See how they shake out compared to the rest of the NFL. Grades, analysis, and the context for each pick.

The 2020 NFL Draft is over. 255 college players over a single three-day period have gone from prospects to rookies. And while not every roster concern was addressed this year, the Pittsburgh Steelers come away with a solid group of players during the craziest offseason in recent years.

The fact the general manager Kevin Colbert had just six picks in the 2020 NFL Draft, combined with the fact the Pittsburgh Steelers first pick wasn’t until No. 49, there was some concern in fan circles that this year’s draft group would be pretty skimpy. That it would be impossible with so few draft picks to make any meaningful changes to the roster.

But Colbert showed once again why he is considered one of the premier general managers in the NFL. Rather than trading down and sacrificing quality for quantity, the Pittsburgh Steelers chose not to trade out of the second round or attempt to acquire more picks. They choose to invest in the players the front office scouted and believed to be good enough to represent the city of Pittsburgh.

With Ben Roethlisberger’s age and recent injury history, many outlets predicted Colbert would attempt to draft another quarterback, perhaps the heir to Big Ben. But instead, Colbert chose to stand by his quarterback, trusting Roethlisberger to return this season and trusting the bench of backups behind him.

The Pittsburgh Steelers were able to improve their roster this past weekend without having to trade picks or draft a contingency plan for Roethlisberger. They addressed a few weak points on the starting roster but preferred to draft depth pieces, players with high ceilings who could be role players in 2020 and possibly see their role expanded after this season.

This was by far the most efficient plan going into the draft. With just one pick in the top hundred, it never made sense for Colbert to try and go for a transformative game-changer. It made much more sense to draft backups to the quality roster the Pittsburgh Steelers already have, plus take chances on developmental players who could sit and learn behind them.

While addressing a few weak points on the offense, Colbert and the Pittsburgh Steelers concluded this weekend with a much stronger, more well-rounded roster than they had coming into it. The Pittsburgh Steelers did as well of a job as any team with only six picks in the draft.

In this breakdown of the 2020 NFL Draft, we’ll review the players drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ll give a brief summary of the skills they bring to the roster, the reason they make sense for Colbert to draft and what role they can expect to find on the roster. We’ll assign each pick a final grade, based on these factors and explain why they make sense.

For more analysis and team grades from the 2020 NFL Draft, make sure to check back with NFL Mocks. We will be adding each team’s draft grades and you won’t want to miss our detailed analysis of each team’s draft haul. Plus, we will soon start our coverage of the 2021 NFL Draft, as we begin the process of scouting and analyzing next year’s group of talented athletes.