It might not be the most dire need, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to target the safety position early in the NFL Draft. With five picks in the first three rounds, they\u2019ll have plenty of chances to make that happen. But to FOX Sports\u2019 Nick Wright, the Steelers should use their first draft pick on the position, in the form of Toledo\u2019s Emmanuel McNeil-Warren.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, some people think this guy, Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, is a better safety than Thieneman, from Oregon. The Steelers spend more money on defense than any other team in the league. They also, despite spending all that money, they have old Jalen Ramsey patrolling that defensive backfield. I think that McNeil-Warren would be a nice addition for them,\u201d Wright said Monday on FS1\u2019s First Things First<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jalen Ramsey moved to safety last year, and he adjusted well on the fly. But Ramsey probably won\u2019t be stuck in that spot next year. Mike McCarthy has stressed the importance of positional flexibility on both sides of the ball. That\u2019s something Ramsey has, and McCarthy hinted in a speech last week <\/a>that Ramsey will be moving around the secondary.<\/p>\n DeShon Elliott\u2019s return from injury is a big addition. Jaquan Brisker and the expected signing of Darnell Savage<\/a> add some nice depth as well. But it\u2019s still a position the Steelers should supplement through the draft. Brisker and Savage are only on one-year deals. Wright notes Ramsey is aging, and Elliott is only under contract through 2027. Some young talent through the draft would greatly improve the position\u2019s long-term outlook.<\/p>\n There\u2019s reason to believe McNeil-Warren could be that guy. He\u2019s the only first-round talent at the position the Steelers have held a pre-draft visit with<\/a>. Caleb Downs will be off the board well before the Steelers go on the clock, and Dillon Thieneman might be too. Some analysts even believe all three safeties could come off the board<\/a> before the Steelers get a chance.<\/p>\n But if one will be available at 21, it\u2019s probably Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. If he\u2019s their guy, there are a lot of reasons to be excited. McNeil-Warren is a physical safety who plays the run very well, is big enough to play man coverage against tight ends, and is good at reading concepts in zone coverage. With the Steelers\u2019 interest evident, he\u2019s one to consider come draft day.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It might not be the most dire need, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to target the safety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[67349,74933,74934,3283,43856,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-166099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-emmanuel-mcneil-warren","tag-first-things-first","tag-fs1","tag-jalen-ramsey","tag-nick-wright","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166099","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=166099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}