The Steelers have 12 picks in the upcoming NFL Draft, and while the jury is still out on whether or not the team will actually end up selecting a player at every slot, there\u2019s absolutely an argument in favor of doing exactly that.<\/p>\n
If the draft is a numbers game, why not take as many swings as possible? And as the Steelers enter a new era with a lot of free roster space, getting an infusion of 12 new players might be a great use of resources.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s always worth asking: Has this strategy worked before?<\/p>\n
Using Pro Football Reference, I went back and looked at past Steelers drafts to find the last time the team selected 12 players or more. And it\u2019s been a while. It took until 1992 \u2014 the last ever draft to feature 12 rounds \u2014 for me to find a Steelers draft with a dozen picks or more.<\/p>\n
That alone shows just how unprecedented it is for the Steelers to have that much draft capital at once.<\/p>\n
Round 1: OT Leon SearcyRound 2: LB Levon KirklandRound 3: NT Joel SteedRound 4: WR Charles DavenportRound 5: DB Alan HallerRound 7: TE Russ CampbellRound 7: RB Scottie GrahamRound 8: DB Darren PerryRound 8: G Hesham IsmailRound 8: DT Nate WilliamsRound 9: LB Elnardo WebsterRound 10: RB Mike SaundersRound 11: C Kendall GammonRound 12: QB Cornelius Benton<\/p>\n
A few things stand out about this draft. First, it was a largely successful one with some clear hits in Searcy, Kirkland, Steed, Perry \u2014 and Gammon, who had the longest career of the bunch as a backup center and starting long snapper.<\/p>\n
No other player besides Graham ever appeared in more than 50 career games, but Pittsburgh did get enough hits to add to the foundation of the roster that would eventually make the Super Bowl in the 1995-96 season.<\/p>\n
However, this just isn\u2019t the best example to compare to the Steelers\u2019 current situation as 12 picks were more common at the time due to the number of rounds. Pittsburgh only had seven picks in the first seven rounds, but they did have four in the top 100 (the team has five in 2026). That value was clear in the run of Searcy-Kirkland-Steed, who each made one or more Pro Bowls in their career.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s try to find a more recent draft.<\/p>\n
Round 1: C Maurkice PounceyRound 2: OLB Jason WorildsRound 3: WR Emmanuel SandersRound 4: DE Thaddeus GibsonRound 5: OG Chris ScottRound 5: DB Crezdon ButlerRound 5: LB Stevenson SylvesterRound 6: RB Jonathan DwyerRound 6 WR Antonio BrownRound 7: DT Doug Worthington<\/p>\n
The 2010 NFL Draft might be the best comparison. It\u2019s the last time the Steelers made double-digit picks in a seven-round draft. And even though it was just 10 selections, that could be a likely outcome if Pittsburgh ends up making some trades this year.<\/p>\n
The first three picks of 2010 were largely hits \u2014 Pouncey is arguably a future Hall of Fame and Sanders turned in a long, successful NFL career. Worilds retired early but had developed into a seven-to-eight sacks per season player before then.<\/p>\n
And then, you have a poster child of the late-round swing: Antonio Brown in the sixth. Even with his career cut short, he managed four first-team All-Pros, seven Pro Bowls, and a reputation as one of the best receivers in league history.<\/p>\n
And like the 1992 class, the Steelers used their hits in the draft to build a Super Bowl roster \u2014 this time, reaching into the big game later that season in February 2011.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the last few mega-drafts in Steelers history don\u2019t tell us too much. As with most drafts, the hit rate is higher in the earlier picks. There are a lot of less inspiring names later on. But both 1992 and 2010 featured some all-time Steelers talent, a late round steal or two, and a Super Bowl that followed not long after.<\/p>\n
Maybe double-digit picks can be a useful strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers have 12 picks in the upcoming NFL Draft, and while the jury is still out on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,23185,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-854827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-history","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116351326256159638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854827","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=854827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}