If there’s any position the Pittsburgh Steelers need to target in April’s NFL Draft, it is wide receiver. It was a glaring weakness last year, and they had to resort to in-season signings like Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Adam Thielen to try and right the ship. No matter who’s playing quarterback, the Steelers’ offense won’t have much success without an injection of WR talent.
The good thing is this draft is abundant with receiving talent. There are several first-round candidates, many of which are being mocked to the Steelers plenty. But Pittsburgh also has four picks on Day 2, and according to Gerry Dulac, the Steelers already have interest in two players who will likely be available in the second round.
“My two favorite WRs in the draft are Cooper and Fields. And the Steelers like them both,” Dulac wrote Wednesday in his weekly Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reader chat.
Omar Cooper Jr. and Malachi Fields are each projected to come off the board early in the second round. In a class with less receiving talent, they might even be first-round talents. However, the Combine can certainly alter draft stocks. Especially at the receiver position, so plenty can change from here until late April.
Either way, both Cooper and Fields would provide excellent value on Day 2. Cooper runs his routes well and specializes working over the middle of the field. He has great body control to high point the football in traffic or near the sideline and has a good understanding of zone coverage. All things the Steelers struggled to get out of their WR corps last year.
Fields is another receiver who thrives in contested-catch situations. He’ll catch any pass in his vicinity and has a good understanding of zone coverage, like Cooper. However, neither of these two offer a ton of explosiveness in their respective games. If the Steelers seek to make either Cooper or Fields their WR2, they might want to focus on speed and explosivity when selecting their WR3.
That said, the Steelers need all the help they can get at the position. And even waiting until Day 2 for one of these two makes a lot of sense. It would allow Pittsburgh to prioritize a different position like cornerback, quarterback or offensive line in the first round. And in the second, either Cooper or Fields would still be an excellent addition for the Steelers at the WR position.