PITTSBURGH — For the first time since 1967, the Pittsburgh Steelers are planning a quiet night for the first round of the NFL draft.
With the coronavirus outbreak forcing a virtual draft setup, coach Mike Tomlin is just fine with observing on opening night until his team goes on the clock on the second night with the No. 49 pick.
“It’s gonna be a spectator’s view,” Tomlin said on a video conference with reporters Monday. “But, it’s really a good opportunity for us to get comfortable with the organization of all of this, in terms of how the draft is unfolding and how communication happens, trades and things of that nature. I think there’s some unintended consequences, or benefits of not having a first pick from that perspective.”
At the time of the call, the Steelers hadn’t yet participated in the league’s draft walk-through, scheduled for 1 p.m. on Monday, so they didn’t know all the specifics of how this year’s system would work.
Shortly after the start of the walk-through, ESPN’s Adam Schefter cited a text from a draft participant saying there was a “technical glitch” with the first pick.
But the Steelers have set up their own internal chat room for Tomlin, general manager Kevin Colbert, owner and president Art Rooney II and vice president of football & business administration Omar Khan to mimic an in-person draft war room.
The Steelers currently have six picks in this week’s draft.
“Basically what we have available to us is as if we were sitting in the room together,” Colbert said. “All the coaches and scouts will have access to every conversation going on, via different lines. But Coach, myself, Art and Omar will get into trade talks, we can share a conversation as if we’re sitting there.”
Tomlin is also plenty comfortable with not having a first-round pick because the Steelers acquired safety Minkah Fitzpatrick from Miami in exchange for that pick back in September. Fitzpatrick had an immediate impact, racking up five interceptions and 57 combined tackles in his first season in Pittsburgh.
“I’m not fretting at all about not having a first pick,” Tomlin said. “That first pick is Minkah Fitzpatrick, and we’ve already benefited from his presence and looking forward to him continuing to do so.”
In an earlier conference call, Colbert expressed the same sentiment as his head coach when asked about the possibility of trading back into the first round, adding that the known quantity in Fitzpatrick is especially valuable in a draft where there are more unknowns because of the unusual evaluation process.
“Under the kind of circumstances, the uncertainty of the player you might be taking and not have all the information, I’m a lot more more comfortable knowing we got an All-Pro player with that pick,” Colbert said. “I’m not real concerned about getting back in [the first round] because there’s good depth in this draft. I feel good about who we can get in the second round.”
Source : ESPN
