Pittsburgh Steelers: 7-Round 2019 NFL mock draft nets potential starters
By Randy Gurzi
Needing to turn the page on a season full of distractions, the Pittsburgh Steelers land several potential starters in this 7-Round 2019 NFL mock draft.
What a year it was for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It started out on a bad foot as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger let his frustrations with the front office be known before the season began. The source of his angst was their drafting as he was miffed that they added a quarterback the past two drafts.
Of course, Big Ben left out the fact that he nearly retired before 2017 when questioning the front office, but that really didn’t matter because the temper of Roethlisberger was minimal in terms of drama for Pittsburgh in 2018.
The real story was the season-long holdout of running back Le’Veon Bell. He was also upset with the brass in the Steel City after they gave him the franchise tag for a second straight year. Bell wanted more security and all season there was the “will he report, or won’t he” storyline to follow.
Even with that going on, Pittsburgh shook off a slow start and reeled off six wins in a row from Week 5 through Week 11. However, they managed just two more wins from that point on.
More drama ensued during their poor finish and again it was Roethlisberger in the center of it. The starting quarterback publicly called out rookie receiver James Washington for dropping a pass, something that should have happened behind closed doors. Big Ben feels he earned the right to call out players, which is true — but again, should be done in private.
After the year was through, things kept getting weird as wideout Antonio Brown ended up forcing his way out and has had his own disputes with both Roethlisberger and fellow receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.
In the end, the Steelers are hoping for a quieter year, with more wins. This latest seven-round mock draft will aim to help with the latter portion of that goal as we land several players with starting potential.
Note: This mock was compiled using The Draft Network’s Mock Draft Machine.