Now that the NFL draft is over, most people turn their attention to rookie minicamps, OTAs, and training camps. However, there are those whose attention shifts (at least in part) to next year’s draft. Whether that’s the absurdly early mock drafts or, in the case of Over The Cap’s Nick Korte, the compensatory pick formula, the NFL draft process never really ends. Even those of us who don’t fully pay attention to the draft year-round still wonder if the Pittsburgh Steelers will have any compensatory picks the following year.
Unfortunately, it looks like the Steelers won’t. On Monday afternoon, Korte released his projections for the 2025 NFL Draft’s compensatory picks. He projects that the Baltimore Ravens will get four extra picks (including one for new Steelers LB Patrick Queen) and the Cleveland Browns will get two while neither the Steelers nor the Cincinnati Bengals get one.
This has been a trend for the Steelers. They did not receive compensatory picks in the 2024 NFL Draft or in the 2023 edition. Why is this happening? In simplest terms, the Steelers are adding either comparable or even more expensive free agents than the players they are losing to free agency. According to OverTheCap, the Steelers have signed three players who are eligible to add compensatory picks for their previous teams. Queen is one of them while S DeShon Elliott is in line to add a seventh-round pick for the Miami Dolphins. The site also highlights KR Cordarelle Patterson as potentially adding a seventh-round pick for the Atlanta Falcons but doesn’t in Korte’s projection.
Conversely, the Steelers’ loss of DL Armon Watts is offset by the addition of P Cameron Johnston.
So at the moment, we can expect the Steelers will not add any additional picks in the 2025 NFL Draft courtesy of the league. We also know they will be making those selections in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
What is unknown is exactly what picks the Steelers will be making. At the moment, the Steelers hold their standard selections in each of the first three rounds. Once the fourth round hits, then there are plenty of scenarios thanks to recent trades the team made. The most notable ones include the Justin Fields trade with the Chicago Bears, the Kenny Pickett trade to the Philadelphia Eagles, and the William Jackson III with the Washington Commanders back in 2022.
So even without the compensatory picks, the 2025 NFL Draft is shaping up to be an interesting one with conditional picks and trades having affected picks after the first three rounds.