Please, stop sending me your Steelers mock drafts

As you obviously don’t know, I don’t pay attention to the annual NFL Draft until about a month before the big weekend kicks off at the end of April.

That’s right, much like my taxes, I don’t even try to get up to speed on all things draft-related until it’s almost too late.

If I would have been allowed to stick to my usual schedule in 2023, I wouldn’t have read my first mock draft until the end of March.

It’s too bad I’ve already glanced at several dozen thanks to people who clearly don’t know what I’m all about. I’m not the guy who does the mock drafts. I’m the guy who makes fun of the people who do the mock drafts.

You know how many emails I’ve already received from BTSC readers asking me to rate their latest mock draft? And it’s not just emails. No, I get like three DMs a week that contain screenshots of someone’s latest mock draft that they conducted with the help of the Pro Football Network’s now-famous Mock Draft Simulator.

People find me on Facebook and send me their mock drafts in instant messenger.

Heck, someone even snail-mailed me their latest mock draft just last week. (It was very old school and impressive, actually.)

I was at a concert recently, and on my seat was what I thought was a flyer about someone else’s show. Instead, it was yet another mock draft.

“What do you think?” these people always ask me. “I made a lot of trades.”

I think you need to get some air.

My friends and family are constantly texting me their latest mock drafts.

“What do you think?” these friends and family ask me. “I made a lot of trades.”

What I think is that you stopped reading my articles years ago (“That’s like three paragraphs, I don’t have time for that”), and you probably forgot that I’m not the guy who cares about mock drafts.

Again, I’m not even close to beginning my research on the Steelers' 2023 NFL Draft. I’m aware of their needs—I’d rank inside linebacker, cornerback and defensive line right up at the top of the list—but I don’t know 98 percent of the prospects at this point.

Why would I?

Why would you?

I do know Twitter, however, and I saw what the people were talking about as they followed the annual NFL Combine that just wrapped up in Indianapolis, Indiana.

From what I could gather, you’re not much further along than I am in your draft research. Why do I say that? Because cornerback Joey Porter Jr., a Penn State alum and the son of Peezy Sr., was the most talked about prospect among Steelers fans during the Combine. And if it wasn’t Peezy Jr., it was receiver Jordan Addison, who played at Pitt for a spell and was football BFFs with Kenny Pickett.

Will the Steelers draft one or both of those prospects?

I don’t know, but I will likely have a better and more educated opinion on those players—as well as many others—once I truly begin my 2023 NFL Draft research.

Until then, stop sending me your mock drafts.

If I haven’t made myself clear by now, I’ll leave you with this:

I’m not the person who immediately begins to pay attention to mock drafts the second he’s walking out of Acrisure Stadium following the Steelers' final game of the 2022 regular season (I believe I was texted my first mock draft that very day). No, I’m the guy who only begins to care about mock drafts around the time the Pirates are set to play their 2023 home opener at PNC Park.