There will be plenty of unknowns in this year's NFL Draft, right down to exactly how the whole thing is going to play out over a three-day period as the league and its teams deal with a nationwide shutdown because of the coronavirus outbreak.
For the Steelers, it's created even more mystery surrounding their intentions than most years. Kevin Colbert likes to run a tight ship when it comes to his team's draft intentions, but most years, word typically gets out regarding who the team holds meetings with and what players the team brings in for its 30 private visits.
With those visits now being done virtually via phone conferencing, that news has been few and far between for the Steelers this year, which is probably how Colbert likes it.
Check any of the places that track such things and you'll find precious little information regarding players who have spoken to the Steelers, especially when compared with the other 31 teams in the league. But rest assured, the Steelers have been doing their due diligence.
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Mike Tomlin, Kevin Colbert address media Monday from their homes. - DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS[/caption]
"Although the process has been different, I still have the same level of preparedness and comfort that I normally have going into a draft week," Mike Tomlin said Monday via a virtual press conference. "Areas where we may be lacking, we’re probably stronger in some other areas. I feel really good from a preparedness standpoint in terms of the tape. I had a real good opportunity to delve into that, probably more so than when we’re traveling a bunch. We do get a lot of information from the face to face and being on their campuses. The calls have been very productive for us. We’re not worried about why this is different. It’s the same for all the people that we compete against. From that standpoint, it’s fair. It’s been fun to adjust and find ways to be productive. Once the pro days got shut down, we almost immediately started our meetings, so there was never a sense or feeling of being rushed through a developmental process."
Tomlin and Colbert usually make it to as many as one dozen college pro days during the lead up to the draft, which will be held Thursday through Saturday this week. But the process was shut down very early as the nation began social distancing. That meant Tomlin and Colbert made it only to the pro day at Clemson.
The rules put in place also forced the NFL to cancel those private visits by players with teams. But the Steelers have gotten in 37 virtual visits with prospects.
Those aren't quite the same as bringing in a player for all-day meetings and a dinner, but they'll have to do.
The same will be true of players who needed medical checkups due to an existing problem that was in the process of healing or who had surgery since the NFL Scouting Combine took place in February. The NFL canceled its medical re-check in Indianapolis, meaning teams will face some uncertainty with those players.
Colbert estimates there are 76 draftable players who fall into that category and another 70-plus players on whom teams don't know much about in terms of 40 times or on-field workouts because they chose not to work out at the combine, only to have their pro days canceled.
"All teams are in the same boat. None of us have that information because players didn’t have pro days, so we couldn’t get 40 times," Colbert said. "Nobody got the extra information of the re-checks on the physicals. We’re relying on what we see on film as to what we think a player can run. We do more background, talk to their strength coaches. There have been several videos sent out by agents throughout the spring. We assigned our scouts to watch those videos. You’re not going to time anyone based off a video because we don’t know what the surface is, where the wind is, how much a player weighs.
"What we do say is that if we think a player is 4.5 and you watch the video and he looks like he runs a 4.65, make that note. If we think he’s a 4.5 and he looks like a 4.4, make that note. (Trainer) John Norwig and our team doctors, Dr. (Jim) Bradley and Dr. (Tony) Yates, they’ve been awesome in following up with phone calls and following up as much as they can either talking to the player or talking to the team doctors or doctors who did the surgery, the trainers, making it the best we can with the information we’ve got."
That information has all been gathered and will lead the Steelers in the direction in which they will travel starting Friday. The Steelers don't have a pick in the first round this year for the first time since 1967, having sent that pick to the Dolphins as part of the trade to acquire All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Colbert took part in a mock draft ran by the NFL Monday in order to iron out any bugs for the league's first virtual draft.
When it comes time to do the actual draft itself, the Steelers will do things in the manner in which they usually do. While everyone will be sequestered in their own homes, Colbert, Tomlin and team president Art Rooney II will make the pick, with vice president of football and business administration Omar Khan also on hand on the team's main video feed in case the Steelers want to make a trade.
"What we have available to us will be as if we’re sitting in the room together," Colbert said.
And when it's all said and done, the Steelers will have made at least six draft picks. The team owns one pick each in the second and third rounds, two in the fourth and one each in the sixth and seventh rounds. That first pick won't come until Friday night, after 48 other players have been selected.
But the Steelers feel confident they'll add players who can help them win in 2020.
"We still think the depth of this draft is good. We’ll get all six of our players from 140," Colbert said referencing the number of players on which the Steelers have a draftable grade or would consider selecting. "We’ll get some that will start, some that compete with our starters, some that will back up and some that will compete with our backups."
Just who those players might be, however, will continue to be a mystery -- at least for now.
"We have some positional needs, no doubt," Tomlin said. "But as we always do, we’re going to let the development (of the draft) do our work for us. We put a lot of effort into this development. There are a lot of good players on both sides of the ball. We can find good players on both sides of the ball and on special teams. We’re going to come out of this thing with the guys we need, no doubt. Our shared experience with each other makes me confident of that. We’re going to get our needs addressed on offense, defense and special teams."
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