Pittsburgh Steelers at Texas Longhorns Pro Day, Kenny Vaccaro an option?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in attendance at the Texas Longhorns Pro Day today, and head coach Mike Tomlin is also taking a look at the Longhorns prospects who will be working out in Austin. The draft’s top safety Kenny Vaccaro is set to visit the Miami Dolphins, and it will be interesting to see if Vaccaro (a sure-fire top 20 pick) is able to schedule some more future visits.

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Vaccaro, however, is suffering from a hip flexor injury and will not be able to participate in the forty yard dash, but Vaccaro is so good that I doubt teams care that he won’t be able to improve on his 4.63 forty time that he ran at the Combine. He showed that he has plenty of long speed on tape with Texas, and he did an excellent job covering West Virginia Mountaineers slot receiver and forty yard Combine star Tavon Austin this past season.

Now here is why Vaccaro is now notable from a Pittsburgh Steelers perspective, because the NFL Network’s Albert Breer tweeted that Tomlin being at Texas’s pro day “could” link the Steelers to Vaccaro. Breer believes that the Steelers could peg Vaccaro as the successor to Pittsburgh legend Troy Polamalu, and it would make sense since both Polamalu and Vaccaro have similar playing styles.

Vaccaro probably won’t be available for the Steelers in the draft, but there are plenty of draft analysts who believe Vaccaro would be a great pick for the Steelers there due to his fit for the team  and his overall value. It will be interesting to see if the Steelers try to peg a successor there, or if they decide to just pick up a player who fits a need. I lean towards the latter, but I have a strong feeling Tomlin and the Steelers want to check out what Vaccaro could offer them at No. 17 given their strong presence at the Texas pro day.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter for more NFL updates and analysis @SorianoJoe.