Cleveland Browns: How the rest of the AFC North fared in 2022 NFL Draft

Pittsburgh Steelers get their guy at quarterback

For the first time since 2004, the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted a quarterback in the first round of the NFL Draft. For the last 18 or so years, Ben Roethlisberger has been the one under center for the Black and Gold and he only put in a Hall of Fame career, which of course resulted in a ton of wins against the Browns. Ugh.

With Big Ben retiring after the 2021 season, Pittsburgh was suddenly needed to fill the void of a player who is Canton-bound in five years. Good luck with that.

This year’s draft class didn’t have any franchise-altering quarterbacks like in years past, but it had some guys who can take a year or two to develop and be in a good position. The Steelers sat at No. 20 and they had their eye on what teams like the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks would do, as they were also in the market for a new quarterback.

There wasn’t a single quarterback taken before the Steelers drafted, so they had their pick of who they wanted and with that pick, they drafted Kenny Pickett out of Pitt. That pun truly wrote itself.

The Steelers were rumored to be heavy on Liberty quarterback Malik Willis but decided to go with Pickett instead.

Pickett set the college football world on fire last year and really boosted his draft stock. The Steelers clearly liked Picket a lot and decided to keep the former Pitt Panther at home in Pittsburgh. The heir apparent to Roethlisberger doesn’t necessarily have to start right away, as the Steelers signed Mitch Trubisky in the offseason. Pickett will at the very least get a chance to compete for the starting gig.

For the sake of the Browns, I truly hope that this is the stat of Pittsburgh being in quarterback hell for the next nearly 20 years.

In the second and third rounds is where the Steelers really added some high-quality players. With the 52nd overall pick, Pittsburgh drafted Georgia wide receiver George Pickens, another player who was mocked to the Browns at 44. Despite “maturity issues” that helped Pickens’s stock fall, I would have loved to have seen Pickens be drafted by the Browns, and I hate that he went to the Steelers.

In the third round, the Steelers added defensive tackle DeMarvin Leal out of Texas A&M, to add to the already vaunted defense. Now Leal can be a disruptive force besides All-Pro T.J. Watt. Great. Leal was another player that the Browns could have taken at 44 if they kept the pick or at 78, but instead, he went six picks later to the Steelers.

The Steelers added another young and talented receiver later in the draft when they took Calvin Austin III out of Memphis. They also added another brother to their now four pairs of brothers in the NFL when they took tight end, Connor Heyward, younger brother of Steelers defensive lineman, Cameron.

In his final draft as an NFL general manager, Kevin Colbert went out with a bang and seemingly put Pittsburgh in a position to continue to have success in the league.