ESPN analyst sees Steelers going D-line, receiver

Fresh off watching prospects work out at the scouting combine, ESPN draft analyst Jordan Reid projected the Pittsburgh Steelers to take a wide receiver and defensive lineman — each from Texas — in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft next month.

He admits the order could be reversed.

“It’s their two biggest needs, and it was something I definitely debated,” Reid said Wednesday on a conference call. “They could go D-line and receiver, or they could go corner assuming they don’t address it in free agency.”

Cornerback, however, is an area that can be addressed on the open market, and it’s a position the Steelers are expected to explore Monday when the NFL’s legal tampering period begins in advance of free agency. Wide receiver is another position that could result in a freeagent acquisition.

Neither position in this year’s class is as deep as defensive line. “It’s definitely loaded,” Reid said.

Reid, who joined ESPN as a draft analyst in 2021 after serving as a scout and writer for The Draft Network, had his second- and third-rated defensive tackles — Michigan’s Kenneth Grant and Ole Miss’ Walter Nolen — off the board before the Steelers’ turn to pick at No. 21. The top defensive tackle, Michigan’s Mason Graham, is expected to go in the top five.

Reid said Oregon’s Derrick Harmon could be in the Steelers’ wheelhouse.

“He finished first in passrush pressure rate on the interior,” Reid said. “Just having that disruptive presence along the interior is something (the Steelers) definitely lack.”

In his two-round mock draft that was unveiled a day earlier, Reid had the Steelers taking Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden with the No. 21 pick and Longhorns teammate Alfred Collins at No. 52.

“I could see them going D-line very early,” Reid said. “I wanted to make sure I gave them Alfred Collins because he’s that Pittsburgh Steelers-type of defensive lineman. He just screams that as a player.”

Collins is a 6-foot-6, 332-pound prospect who was a two-year starter and fiveyear contributor at Texas.

“He’s a player I think they are going to be very interested in,” Reid said. “I already had in my mind to go receiver with Matthew Golden (in the first round).”

The 5-11, 191-pound Golden ran the fastest 40-yard dash time of any wide receiver at the combine, covering it in 4.29 seconds. He is among three receivers Reid projects being selected in the first round and is sandwiched between Arizona State’s Tet McMillan (No. 12) and Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka (No. 26).

Golden had 58 catches for 987 yards and nine touchdowns in his lone season at Texas. He spent his first two seasons at Houston before transferring.

Reid believes it could make sense for a receiver-needy team such as the Steelers to wait until the second day to take a pass catcher.

“The depth is good in the second and third rounds,” he said. “There is a bit of a dropoff after that.”

Receivers with second- round slots on Reid’s board include Missouri’s Luther Burden III, Ole Miss’Tre Harris, Iowa State’s Jayden Higgins and Stanford’s Elic Ayomanor.

The Steelers will find an abundance of starting receivers available when free agency begins. Three more became available Wednesday with news that Davante Adams, Tyler Lockett and Christian Kirk will be released. They will join a freeagent group that includes Chris Godwin, Stefon Diggs, Amari Cooper, Keenan Allen and Darius Slayton.