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SB Nation really feels the Steelers need an offensive tackle in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.
They've mocked a tackle there in approximately 96 percent of their drafts in the last two years. They pulled out all the stops in their latest one, though.
The Steelers reached an agreement with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to trade up from the 15th spot to the seventh to take Auburn OT Greg Robinson.
Matthew Fairburn's reasoning for that?
New Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said the team is willing to trade down this year. Most general managers will say that at some point before the draft, but it takes the right scenario for a trade to fall into place. If the Buccaneers decide they are happy with the offensive tackles on their roster, they could look to any of the needy teams picking later in the first round and gauge interest in Auburn's Greg Robinson.
The Steelers haven't had a ton of success drafting offensive tackles in recent years, and Robinson would be the type of mauler they covet. Pittsburgh general manager Kevin Colbert has a history of moving up when the situation calls for it. Landing a player like Robinson could be that type of situation.
The Steelers traded up to 16 from 29 to draft Troy Polamalu in 2003, and to 25 from 32 to draft Santonio Holmes in 2006. A trade into the top 10 would be unprecedented, and if you want to compare the past trade-ups, those were made for players who both filled a starting role at a pretty high level by their second year.
If anything, that scenario seems to apply better if the Steelers stayed put at 15 and drafted the guy they sent to Tampa Bay - Eric Ebron - in the first place.
It seems the future would tell more of a need for depth at tight end than tackle right now, considering they have two tackles who started in 2013 under contract in two seasons (Mike Adams and Kelvin Beachum). The third, Marcus Gilbert, may be the reasoning the Steelers would want to add depth at the position group in the future, but it seems wiser for the Steelers to address larger priorities and see what offensive line coach Mike Munchak can do with the group before trading what must be a large haul of picks to move up eight spots to draft another tackle.
If the trade-up scenario resulted in Texas A&M's Jake Matthews, maybe the scenario would be palatable. Wrong player at a position of lesser priority with too high of a price. Fail.
