Now that the offseason is here for all 32 teams, all attention turns toward free agency and the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
Every Monday from now until the annual selection meeting, Behind The Steel Curtain will provide you with a weekly mock draft, and each one will have its own flavor. From different staff writers, round-count, trades, no trades – you can expect something new and fresh each week from now until the draft begins in late April.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, today we will dive into a four-round mock that sees the Steelers move into the top 10 to take one of the nation\u2019s top receivers.<\/p>\n
Round 1, Pick 8 (via New Orleans Saints): WR Makai Lemon, USC<\/p>\n
Lemon is one of the top receivers in the country. If not for Carnell Tate being in this class, he would be the consensus No. 1 receiver in the class. He finished sixth in the country in receiving yards and had 11 touchdowns. He is terrific when it comes to making contested catches, and he would immediately be a great starter opposite DK Metcalf.<\/p>\n
Round 2, Pick 53: CB Chris Johnson, San Diego State<\/p>\n
Johnson is the definition of a shutdown cornerback. He picked off four passes in 2025 and allowed a passer rating of just 16.1, per PFF. With both Asante Samuel and James Pierre set to be free agents, adding another young building block to the secondary would be a good direction to go.<\/p>\n
Round 3, Pick 85: LB Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech<\/p>\n
Rodriguez showed out at the Senior Bowl and had a terrific 2025 season, as well. He finished first in the country with seven forced fumbles and had 58 defensive stops to go along with them. Combined with the fact that Rodriguez\u2019s linebackers coach, C.J. Ah You, is now on the Steelers\u2019 staff, it\u2019s safe to assume they\u2019ll have their eyes on the standout linebacker.<\/p>\n
Round 3, Pick 99: G Keylan Rutledge, Georgia Tech<\/p>\n
With Isaac Seumalo set to hit the free agent market, the Steelers may have a need at guard this offseason. Should they forgo signing one in free agency, Rutledge could be a target on Day Two.<\/p>\n
Round 4, Pick 135: S Michael Taaffe, Texas<\/p>\n
Outside of DeShon Elliott, the only other safety on the roster is Sebastian Castro (unless they decide to move Jalen Ramsey back to safety full-time). Even so, it is certainly a position of need entering the offseason. Taaffe picked off two passes in 2025, and finished as PFF\u2019s 14th-highest-graded safety in the country.<\/p>\n
Let us know what you think in the comments. Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that the offseason is here for all 32 teams, all attention turns toward free agency and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,35221,12641,12642],"class_list":{"0":"post-115758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-analysis","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-draft","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-mock-draft"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}