Last year, mock drafts for the Pittsburgh Steelers fell into a pattern pretty quickly. The trend of some combination of the offensive line and running back caught on fast and when the actual 2021 NFL draft happened, they were half right.

2022 mock drafts are starting to roll out with the start of the college football season and you are seeing a similar pattern. Some combination of quarterback and offensive line. Neither are back picks, don’t misunderstand. It is simply something to gauge as the college football season gets going and which players set themselves apart.

Our friends over at Draft Wire put out a new two-round mock draft and with the Steelers picking dead center of the round went offensive tackle in the first and quarterback in the second.

Neither pick is a bad one. In the first round, Mississippi State offensive tackle Charles Cross is an exceptional player. Does he fill a current need? Not really but an offensive tackle in the first means something went wrong with either Zach Banner or Chuks Okorafor in 2021.

Moving to the second round, Draft Wire has the Steelers going with USC quarterback Kedon Slovis. Slovis is among a huge group of top quarterbacks to watch for the upcoming season. I’ve seen him go in the first round as well as the second in mock drafts so clearly the draft community isn’t sure about him as a prospect.

In this scenario, what direction I would take the picks? In the second, I have no qualms with Slovis in the second. The potential is there and there is much uncertainty with the future of the position in Pittsburgh.

But in the first round, I’d go a different direction. The two names that stand out to me are North Carolina State guard Ikem Ekwonu and Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam. Both are elite talents and both would fill a more pressing need in the first round.