Now almost a full week removed from the 2024 NFL Draft, the praise continues to roll in for the second straight year for Pittsburgh Steelers GM Omar Khan, thanks to the work he did in the seven-round draft.
After seemingly acing the draft in 2023 and then watching a number of players become key contributors right away for a playoff team last season, Khan seems to have nailed the draft once again, receiving universal praise for his seven-player class.
That universal praise includes, surprisingly, Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson.
In a piece for PFF.com Thursday morning, Monson listed the Steelers’ draft haul as one of his 10 favorite classes in the NFL, ranking it third behind the Indianapolis Colts and the Philadelphia Eagles.
“For the second year in a row, the Pittsburgh Steelers had an outstanding draft. Their top two picks, Troy Fautanu and Zach Frazier, could each be Day 1 starters and upgrades along the offensive line. Fautanu, in particular, will free the team from needing to play Dan Moore Jr. against Myles Garrett twice every season,” Monson writes. “Roman Wilson is one of the most NFL-ready receivers in this class. He averaged 2.68 yards per route run last season with just one dropped pass.
“Payton Wilson slid into the third round due to an extensive injury history but has tape as good as any linebacker in this class and is an elite-level athlete. The Steelers securing him at No. 97 overall represents outstanding value.”
It’s hard to find any issues with the Steelers’ draft class as a whole. Entering the draft, the Steelers needed to address the offensive tackle and center positions relatively early, especially with four picks inside the top 100.
They did just that, doing so back-to-back, landing Washington’s Troy Fautanu in the first round and West Virginia’s Zach Frazier in the second round, adding serious strength and nastiness to the offensive line that has undergone a facelift in the last few years.
Both should realistically start right away, which would relegate Dan Moore Jr. to a swing role, strengthening the Steelers’ offensive line depth chart in the process. Notice that Monson couldn’t go one time talking about the Steelers without mentioning Myles Garrett, too.
While there is concern about Roman Wilson and his size at the receiver position, as well as profiling mostly as a slot-only receiver in the NFL, his toughness and dependability leap off the page. The Steelers need that in the receiver room and Wilson brings that in abundance. Whether he’s WR2 or WR3 is up for debate, but the Steelers did well to add talent to the room.
This draft class goes through the roof if North Carolina State linebacker Payton Wilson stays healthy and hits on his NFL potential. Plenty have spoken highly of Wilson potentially being the best linebacker in the draft, a top-20 talent overall who has drawn comparisons to future Hall of Famer Luke Kuechly in the process.
There is really no areas that could be truly nitpicked in the Steelers’ draft class, outside of maybe making the case that instead of taking South Dakota State’s Mason McCormick in the fourth round over a cornerback or another receiver, but it’s clear that the Steelers loved McCormick and see him as a future starter on the interior.
We’ll have to look back in four years and see how the draft class shaped up, but right now there’s a lot to love. Even Monson has that stance, so when that’s the case you know it must be very good.