The Steelers have now made three picks in the first round since Omar Khan was named general manager of the team three years ago after taking Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon with the 21st selection in the 2025 NFL Draft Thursday night.
Of those three selections – offensive tackles Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu being the others – all three have been players the Steelers brought to Pittsburgh for pre-draft visits.
In fact, this year, if looking at the five defensive tackles taken in the first round of the draft Thursday night, Harmon was the only one brought to Pittsburgh in that process by the Steelers.
Coincidence? That seems highly unlikely.
One thing Khan and the Steelers' scouting department have done an excellent job of doing is identifying who is going to be available at what spots in the draft.
"The other day when we met, we talked about certain guys that we would not trade away from, and this is one of those players for us," Khan said of Harmon.
The Steelers not only identified Khan as a player who would be available when they made their selection with the 21st pick, but as a player they coveted, as well.
"He has Steelers DNA. For us, it starts inside and up front, and this is a guy that's capable of dominating that space versus the run and the pass," said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. "So we're really excited about having him. As Omar mentioned, we were not interested in considering trading away from him, and really excited about getting him in here and getting started."
The Steelers had offers to trade down and acquire additional picks. But when they weighed the offers versus the player available that they coveted, they didn't pull the trigger. They stayed right where they were at and picked.
They had a plan and they stuck to it. They didn't take quarterback Shedeur Sanders, a player many national analysts had them picking . Nor did they select Jaxson Dart, another quarterback linked to them during the draft process. Both were still available.
They didn't trade away from the pick. They simply stuck to their plan. And yes, they have a plan.
That plan is to build the offensive and defensive lines. With five offensive linemen selected in the previous two drafts, the Steelers have done a good job of completely revamping the trenches on that side of the ball.
Now, it's the turn for them to continue building the defensive line.
Two years ago, they selected defensive lineman Keeanu Benton in the second round of the draft. Now, they've added a first-round talent to the equation, as well.
"You have heard me talk about the big guys, and it just doesn't apply to the offense side, obviously," Khan said. "Same thing. Defensive side is an opportunity, and those big guys, they are not easy to find. When you have an opportunity to get a good one, we're going to get him."
The plan is to continue to build in the trenches. And when the opportunity presents itself to acquire a long-term, high-end answer at quarterback, that's when they'll strike.
• Harmon has been compared to a young Cam Heyward by more than one analyst.
With that in mind, it's no accident they made him the first defensive linemen they have selected in the first round of the draft since taking Heyward in the first round of the 2011 draft.
Harmon can't wait to start picking the brain of the four-time first-team All-Pro.
"I can really learn from him, because he's been doing this forever, since I was a baby," Harmon said. "So (there) wouldn't be any other way I wanted, really."
Heyward is coming off one of his best seasons. But he turns 36 next month. He's not going to play forever, though he certainly showed he can still play at an extremely high level.
And he is the perfect teacher for a young player such as Hampton, much the same way players such as Aaron Smith, Brett Keisel and Casey Hampton were teachers for him back in 2011.
• Were the Steelers tempted to take a quarterback with the 21st pick?
Not according to Khan.
"We were on the clock and we got the player that we wanted," Khan said.
The Steelers will take four quarterbacks to training camp in July. They currently have two quarterbacks on their roster – veterans Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson. So, they will add to this group.
They just didn't want to do it at the cost of not getting a player with the talents of Harmon.
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast Pittonline@iheartmedia.com
"We knew before (their pick came up)," Khan said. "It was easy. We were taking him."
The Steelers aren't going to shy away from taking a quarterback in the first round if and when the opportunity arises. But they also aren't going to reach to take one just to take one.
Perhaps Sanders, Dart or some other quarterbacks in this draft will turn out to be good starters. But the Steelers had Harmon rated higher on their draft board.
• One thing that seems to be overlooked time and again this offseason has been the Steelers' addition of wide receiver DK Metcalf with their second-round pick as part of a package with the Seahawks.
But there were just three wide receivers taken in the first round of this draft, two of which – Arizona's Tetairoa McMillan and Ohio State's Emeka Ebbuka – who had already been selected when the Steelers made their pick.
If prospect DK Metcalf had been available in this draft, he would have been the first one selected. As it is, the Steelers didn't have to guess if he'd turn into a good player. They already know he is.
And they got him in the second round.
• With five picks remaining over the draft's final two days, the Steelers still have some needs remaining.
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure them out," Khan said on Steelers Nation Radio.
Adding to the running back room, perhaps selecting another defensive lineman and getting a young quarterback to take to camp are among them.
But even if they don't get some of those things in the draft, free agency will again heat up after this weekend is completed.
With the draft now here, veteran players who are true free agents – players on expired contracts – no longer count against the NFL's compensatory pick formula. Players who were released by their former teams don't factor into that equation at all.
There will be a market for those players for teams who still have holes they didn't fill in the draft. There also could be some additional veteran players joining those ranks in the coming weeks as teams adust their rosters following the draft.
