{"id":815087,"date":"2026-03-16T08:52:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T08:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/815087\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T08:52:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T08:52:30","slug":"clark-my-favorite-thing-about-the-steelers-offseason-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/815087\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark: My Favorite Thing About The Steelers’ Offseason So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 offseason has gotten a lot of praise for the moves the team has made in the last week. ESPN named the Steelers one of the five most improved teams<\/a> after they acquired Michael Pittman Jr., Jamel Dean, Rico Dowdle, Sebastian Joseph-Day, Jaquan Brisker and more. The Steelers also didn\u2019t lose much, with their most notable losses being RB Kenneth Gainwell and OG Isaac Seumalo. Dowdle can be a capable replacement for Dowdle while the Steelers are comfortable with Spencer Anderson at guard<\/a>. On paper, assuming Aaron Rodgers returns, the Steelers are a better team today than they were when their season ended.<\/p>\n

But what I love the most about the Steelers\u2019 offseason so far is how they set themselves up for the 2026 NFL Draft. While it hasn\u2019t always been clear and obvious, the past few years, it\u2019s been fairly easy to tell what position the team is going to target in the first round. Last season, the Steelers signed Daniel Ekuale and Esezi Otomewo along the defensive line. Two players that helped add depth, but no one had any illusions of them starting. It made the defensive line almost a necessity in the first round, given what the team had in the room.<\/p>\n

In 2024, offensive line was the pretty clear choice for the team\u2019s first-round selection, while 2023 boiled down to cornerback or offensive tackle. The Steelers had left themselves obvious holes to fill during the draft, and the team would need to spend an early-round selection to have a competent position room. This year, the Steelers spread out their free agency spending and more or less filled all their \u201cimmediate\u201d holes. Gainwell got replaced with Dowdle, Pittman comes in as the WR2, signing Dean while bringing back Asante Samuel Jr. gives the team a starter and depth at cornerback. Brisker is a rotational safety.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no position on the Steelers roster right now where I look and really question the depth. The team needs to add another receiver, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll be forced into taking one in the first round if one of their guys isn\u2019t there. There\u2019s no individual position that the team has to target early in the draft or they\u2019ll be screwed. They gave themselves flexibility in how they spent their money in free agency and in the Pittman trade.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say the Steelers don\u2019t have holes and don\u2019t have needs. They still have plenty and they have 12 draft picks to use as they like to keep filling them. But none of them are so drastic that the Steelers will need to spend a first-round pick (or even second, though waiting for a third-round receiver may be dicey) on any specific position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 offseason has gotten a lot of praise for the moves the team has made in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,4423,11808,6,7152,12134,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-815087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jaquan-brisker","10":"tag-michael-pittman-jr","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-rico-dowdle","13":"tag-sebastian-joseph-day","14":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116238007953178108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}