Report: Steelers now receive 6th round pick from Giants in Ross Cockrell trade

The Pittsburgh Steelers had one heck of a cornerback battle going throughout the preseason between Ross Cockrell and Coty Sensabaugh to see who would start opposite Artie Burns in the 2017 season opener.

And then Joe Haden happened.

When the Steelers signed the Pro Bowl cornerback from Cleveland as a free agent, it made Cockrell, who lost said cornerback battle, expendable. Pittsburgh shipped Cockrell to the New York Giants for a 7th round draft pick.

Or so we thought.

Unbeknownst to the general public, there must have been a condition in the trade where if Cockrell played a certain percentage of snaps, the draft pick would turn into a 6th round pick. Conditions like these are normal in trades, just like the Steelers’ trade with the Philadelphia Eagles and Brandon Boykin a few years ago.

Nonetheless, according to Bob Labriola, of Steelers.com, Cockrell played enough snaps to change the draft pick from a 7th, to a 6th.

Before this change, the Steelers would have had to sit out both the 4th and 6th rounds, but will now have a pick in every round but the 4th. The team, as well as the rest of the NFL, will be waiting to hear if they were awarded any compensatory picks as well.

But, in the meantime, the Steelers seem to have claimed a 6th round pick from the Giants.

So, they have that going for them.

Which is nice.

With this news, here is a rundown of the Steelers draft picks in the 2018 NFL Draft:

• Round 1: 28th pick
• Round 2: 28th pick
• Round 3: 28th pick
• Round 4: None
• Round 5: 11th pick from San Francisco, 28th pick
• Round 6: 2nd pick from the New York Giants
• Round 7: 28th pick