Steelers News: It isn’t a coincidence the Steelers draft multiple players from the same school

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2020 NFL Draft is officially over. After finishing last year 8-8, the Steelers, and their vast fan base, have another long offseason awaiting them. Just because the games are done doesn’t mean we stop providing you with features, commentary and opinions to tide you over throughout the offseason!

Today in the black-and-gold links article we take a look at how it shouldn’t be considered a coincidence to anyone how the Steelers tend to draft players from the same school in a draft class.

Let’s get to the news:

• Bringing in college teammates in the same draft class is nothing new for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Drafting multiple players from same school not just a recent trend for Steelers

By: Chris Adamski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

In 2017, it was a pair of Volunteers. The following year, a couple of Cowboys. At training camp last year, Mike Tomlin often was heard yelling, “Big Blue.”

Then, within a 3½-hour span last Saturday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Steelers took two Terrapins.

It’s become a trend, four consecutive NFL Drafts running, that the Steelers select a pair of teammates on the same weekend.

“We’re always going to have each other’s backs,” sixth-round safety Antoine Brooks said of he and former Maryland teammate Anthony McFarland. “Me and him being in the same locker room is like reunited. We’re just on the next level now.”

Just like how last year, Michigan’s Devin Bush (first round) and Zach Gentry (fifth round) were reunited months after they’d thought they’d played their final games as teammates. In 2018, after quarterback/receiver duo Mason Rudolph and James Washington were done tearing apart the Big 12 for four years at Oklahoma State, they probably couldn’t have envisioned the same team would draft them in the third and second rounds, respectively.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Some of the best, and worst, offseason moves for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

From TE to ILB, ranking the best and worst Steelers’ offseason moves

By: Joe Rutter, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The transition from monitoring offseason transactions to overseeing offseason training — even if on a virtual basis — began Monday for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

This period, also known as Phase 1 of the NFL’s conditioning program, provides an opportune time to analyze the moves the Steelers made — or didn’t make — since their season ended Dec. 29 in Baltimore.

Over the past four months, the Steelers have added and lost players, tendered contracts to restricted and unrestricted free agents, added six draft picks, 10 undrafted players and raided the XFL while crafting a 90-man roster.

Some positions were strengthened, others weakened. With that in mind, here is a ranking of 12 position groups on the roster with one overarching thought: Did the Steelers get better, worse or stay the same?

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• How can the Steelers run the ball better in 2020?

Labriola on how the Steelers can run the ball

By: Bob Labriola, Steelers.com

Ready or not, here it comes:

• It started on Jan. 15 with this from Steelers President Art Rooney II: “I would like to see us be a team that can be more consistent running the football. I think that has to be a part of the game.”

• Then there was this on April 20, 72 hours before the start of the NFL Draft, from Coach Mike Tomlin: “There’s some top-quality backs in this draft who could help us, but there are also some other positional guys who could help us. We’ll let the development do the work for us. If we get an opportunity to add a back who could bring some things to our current pool, we’ll be excited about that. We have every intention of running the ball better in 2020 than we did in 2019, whether we add that back or not, and that’s just being bluntly honest with you.”

• And following the draft, there was a lot of this from fans: “So we selected another receiver for Ben Roethlisberger and allowed the Ravens to select running back J.K. Dobbins. I do not believe the current group of running backs can balance the offense effectively. Championship teams have a feature back, and I still believe Dobbins, or D’Andre Swift, or Jonathan Taylor could have been that for the Steelers. Our defense is physical but our offense continues to be less than the Steelers’ traditional physical style. Le’Veon Bell ran over defenders much like Jerome Bettis did. James Connor runs tough but is injury-prone. Anyhow, we had a shot at a feature back a la Ezekiel Elliot, and we passed on him for a big wide receiver.”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• BTSC articles you may have missed...

How Anthony McFarland could be a diamond in the rough for the Steelers

Why is everyone so sure Ben Roethlisberger won’t play out 2020?

We need a nickname for Chase Claypool!

If you look at the way the Steelers add defensive linemen, there is a method to their madness

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