Right here is why the Pittsburgh Steelers won’t be drafting Malik Willis out of Liberty this spring.
For as badly because the Pittsburgh Steelers might need to draft Malik Willis out of Liberty within the 2022 NFL Draft, it will be subsequent to unimaginable for that to even occur.
Regardless that Pittsburgh is in dire want of a franchise quarterback, the Steelers solely have the No. 20 total choose on this spring’s draft. Whereas they may conceivably commerce as much as choose a signal-caller of their selecting, Willis’ draft market is exploding. He might go as excessive as No. 2 total to the Detroit Lions. It could be unbelievable if he slipped previous his hometown Atlanta Falcons at No. 8.
Exterior of Atlanta, and to some extent Detroit, there are just a few different quarterback-desperate groups choosing forward of the Steelers at No. 20: The Carolina Panthers at No. 6, the Seattle Seahawks at No. 9, the Washington Commanders at No. 11 and the New Orleans Saints at No. 18. Pittsburgh must commerce up into the top-five simply to actually have a probability at touchdown Willis.
The opposite necessary issue right here is the 2023 quarterback draft class can be higher than this 12 months’s. Plus, Pittsburgh will most likely win too many video games with Mitch Trubisky below heart to be in an excellent spot to draft a high-quality signal-caller in 2023. Merely put, they’re considerably trapped in quarterbacking purgatory. It’d take a minute to seek out the inheritor obvious to Ben Roethlisberger.
What’s Pittsburgh to do now that it’s not ready to draft the perfect quarterback prospect?
Pittsburgh Steelers won’t transfer up 15 picks to draft Malik Willis out of Liberty
Even when this can be a weak quarterback draft class, the market suggests no less than 4, and doubtlessly 5, can be coming off the board within the first spherical. Willis and native product Kenny Pickett out of Pitt must be locks to go within the top-10. Matt Corral out of Ole Miss ought to go top-half, most likely top-12. UNC’s Sam Howell and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder can be out there within the 20s as properly.
If Pittsburgh needs to commerce up, the Steelers will not be going to should journey as far to get Pickett as they might Willis. They must commerce up into the top-seven to leapfrog Atlanta at No. 8 to be in an excellent spot to land the ACC Participant of the 12 months and Heisman Trophy finalist. He might have tiny arms, however he’s essentially the most pro-ready of any quarterback on this draft. Plus, he performed at Pitt.
Another choice is to hope Corral falls to them or commerce up ever so barely to get him. Howell must be on the board at No. 20, and Ridder will certainly be there. It’d even serve the Steelers to commerce again and take both man just a few picks later. After all, Pittsburgh might focus its consideration on the subsequent wave of quarterbacks coming down the pipeline. 2023 has the texture of the 2004 class.
Whether or not it’s Bryce Younger of Alabama, C.J. Stroud of Ohio State, Spencer Rattler of South Carolina, Sam Hartman of Wake Forest or D.J. Uiagalelei of Clemson, there are many high-quality quarterbacks available in a 12 months’s time. Even when Trubisky performs properly throughout his run because the Steelers’ stop-gap starter, they might have extra bites at higher high quality apples in subsequent 12 months’s NFL Draft.
Willis will be the apple of everybody’s eye, however the Steelers are in no place to commerce up for him.
