Last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers broke a long-standing trend of having the head coach or general manager personally attend the Pro Day workout of the team’s first-round pick. Every selection from Maurkice Pouncey in 2010 through Broderick Jones in 2023 checked that box. Washington OT Troy Fautanu didn’t. A West Coast trip is rare but wasn’t made, o-line coach Pat Meyer flying out in their place. Instead, Fautanu came in for a pre-draft visit to meet the Steelers’ decision-makers. For DL Derrick Harmon and Kenneth Grant to be on the team’s 2025 shortlist, they need to make a pre-draft pitstop to Pittsburgh.
Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan did not attend Pro Day either. The Steelers had a sparse showing at Oregon for Harmon, only sending senior assistant Kelvin Fisher, who often covers the West anyway. Michigan is a usual stop for the Steelers’ brass, but Aaron Rodgers’ visit changed their plans, keeping both in Pittsburgh. Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin and Director of Pro Scouting Sheldon White made the trek to Ann Arbor for Grant and several other solid Wolverines prospects.
Pro Day trips and pre-draft meetings aren’t coincidences. For a Steelers team that still drafts more old-school than new-school players, it’s a people business. Pittsburgh doesn’t draft a defensive lineman or a football player. They draft a person. And getting to know that prospect personally, how they’re wired, how they interact, and how they explain the game, is information that can’t be gleaned by watching the tape or crunching the numbers.
All of that has value. Every piece of draft information makes up a larger puzzle. The Steelers need to see their top pick in person before making him the face of their draft class, beyond what the NFL Combine or Senior Bowl offer, which are shorter meetings that are introductory more than anything else.
It makes visits for Harmon and Grant a must. Of course, it wouldn’t be surprising, and it is sort of expected that both will come in for visits just as Fautanu did. But as of the moment, neither has, and it’ll be an outstanding box to check until they happen.
Even for Fautanu, Pittsburgh cited attending Alabama’s Pro Day and meeting with new head coach Kalen DeBoer, who had just left Washington for the job, as a way to get insight on Fatanu without actually attending his Huskies’ workout. That gave the team wiggle room they won’t have with Harmon or Grant.
The defensive line seems like the obvious first-round choice. The depth chart tells the story. An aging Cam Heyward, Keeanu Benton, and a bunch of backups. But based on the Steelers’ pre-draft movements, what evidence is there that points to taking a defensive lineman at No. 21? So far, the team’s pre-draft visits with defensive linemen are mid-round types. Florida State’s Joshua Farmer, SMU’s Elijah Roberts, Iowa’s Yahya Black, and Ole Miss’ JJ Pegues. Defensive line coach Karl Dunbar has yet to be spotted at any major workouts. Mike Tomlin and Khan have not attended the Pro Days of the top names in the class.
That all could still change. There are still marquee Pro Days left on the schedule—Texas for Alfred Collins, Ole Miss for Walter Nolen, and Ohio State for Tyleik Williams. But Pittsburgh will have to pick up the signs to show they’re serious about taking a defensive lineman in the first round.
It might be easy to think it’s a bluff or smokescreen, the organization intentionally hiding interest. That simply isn’t how the team has operated. They don’t hurt themselves in the process just to be coy with others. Last year, they made their interest in tackle and center clear and drafted both within their first two picks. When they wanted a quarterback in 2022, Tomlin traveled up and down the country and brought several top names in for visits. They do their homework and don’t care who knows about it.
If Derrick Harmon or Kenneth Grant are going to be the next Pittsburgh Steeler, these visits become the main thing worth watching over the next several weeks.
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