As a lead-up to the 2025 NFL draft, we've broken down the current depth chart of every NFL team and identified the biggest draft and team needs for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
You can find additional team-by-team draft needs articles and other draft content on our 2025 NFL Draft Hub.
Pittsburgh Steelers Needs: Top Positions of Need in 2025
- Quarterback
- Defensive Line
- Cornerback
What Picks Do the Pittsburgh Steelers Have in 2025?
The Pittsburgh Steelers have 6 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, including:
- Round 1 (21)
- Round 3 (83)
- Round 4 (123)
- Round 5 (156)
- Round 6 (185)
- Round 7 (229)
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Pittsburgh Steelers 2025 Draft Capital Stats
The Steelers have the 30th-most draft capital according to our Sharp Football Draft Value.
Our Sharp Football Draft Value is a valuation of draft capital based on a combination of average performance delivered and average dollars earned on second contracts.
Pittsburgh Steelers Draft Value vs. Other Teams:
The Steelers’ draft value is 32% lower than the league average of all 32 teams.
Pittsburgh Steelers Draft Prediction:
Find out who our top-rated experts expect the Steelers to draft:
- Brendan Donahue's 2025 NFL Mock Draft – Complete first round breakdown from the #2 most accurate mock drafter over the last five seasons.
- Ryan McCrystal's 2025 NFL Mock Draft – Complete first round breakdown from the #8 most accurate mock drafter over the last five seasons.
Pittsburgh Steelers Strength of Schedule, 2025
The Pittsburgh Steelers have the 24th-easiest NFL strength of schedule for the 2025 NFL season.
Pittsburgh Steelers Offense: Depth Chart, Analysis & Draft Needs
Rich Hribar breaks down the offensive depth chart by position for the Pittsburgh Steelers, identifying areas where the team could improve in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft.
Quarterback Depth Chart, Steelers:
- Mason Rudolph
- Skylar Thompson
Pittsburgh is the favorite to land Aaron Rodgers if he wants to play this season, but right now, this is an unserious quarterback room.
Only Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson are on the roster.
The Steelers have an 8-5-1 record with Rudolph as their starting quarterback, but they were destroyed in his one playoff appearance, and most of his starts came in short-term relief spots.
In his one stint in an open competition to make starts in 2019, Rudolph lost ground to Devlin “Duck” Hodges.
There is a difference between winning games with a quarterback and winning because of that quarterback.
The Steelers have been looking for someone in the latter department since losing Ben Roethlisberger.
Rudolph took 249 dropbacks for the Titans last season, finishing 27th in EPA per dropback (-0.01)
Since Thompson entered the NFL in 2022, his 30.9% success rate ranks dead last among 77 quarterbacks with 100 or more dropbacks.
Running Back Depth Chart, Steelers:
- Jaylen Warren
- Kenneth Gainwell
- Cordarrelle Patterson
- Jonathan Ward
- Evan Hull
- Aaron Shampklin
With Najee Harris leaving the team in free agency, we could finally see Jaylen Warren lead this backfield.
Warren opened last season with a preseason hamstring issue and a knee injury in Week 3, but he still was an efficient player when called on in 2024.
He turned 158 touches into 821 yards.
Averaging 5.2 yards per touch, Warren has averaged over 5.0 yards per touch in each of the past three seasons.
Aaron Jones and James Cook are the only other running backs who have done that.
Since Warren entered the league, there have been 48 running backs with 300 or more rushing attempts.
On that list, Warren sits:
- 6th in yards per carry (4.8)
- 6th in success rate (42.2%)
- 2nd in rate of runs for 10 or more yards (14.2%)
- 14th in rate of runs that fail to gain yards (15.9%)
- 12th in rate of runs to result in a first down or touchdown (24.3%)
- 13th in yards before contact per rush (1.47)
- 6th in yards after contact per rush (3.36)
Can he maintain that efficiency if pressed to carry a higher workload?
That is the question that Pittsburgh should at least explore.
Warren is often compared to Austin Ekeler when he was ushering Melvin Gordon out of Los Angeles, but Warren does come with some size.
He played a change-of-pace role behind Harris, but he is also a bigger body (215 pounds) to take on a more significant workload.
The team signed Kenneth Gainwell on a one-year contract, who could fill in that type of role Warren had in the offense.
The Steelers do not have much draft capital, so this is not a team “need,” but we know that this is still a hot spot for a running back to land based on Warren’s lack of a sample size carrying a high workload and the lack of contractual depth here.
To push a running back landing here further, the Steelers do not have a running back signed beyond this season.
They have exclusive rights with Evan Hull and Aaron Shampklin, but everyone else is slated to become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
The Steelers have used top-30 visits on R.J. Harvey, Jaydon Blue, D.J. Giddens, Omarion Hampton, Ollie Gordon, Kaleb Johnson, Dylan Sampson, and Bhayshul Tuten, further signaling that they are looking to add a young player to this portion of the depth chart.
Wide Receiver Depth Chart, Steelers:
- DK Metcalf
- George Pickens
- Roman Wilson
- Calvin Austin
- Ben Skowronek
- Scotty Miller
- Brandon Johnson
- Lance McCutcheon
The most significant move of the Pittsburgh offseason was trading for DK Metcalf.
Pittsburgh then immediately signed Metcalf to a massive five-year extension after the trade.
Metcalf is coming off a disappointing season in Seattle, but it was not all bad.
He opened the season by going over 100 yards in the opening four games.
He suffered a knee injury in that Week 7 game against Atlanta and was never the same.
| Weeks | Tgt | Rec | ReYd | PPR | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-7 | 8.7 | 5.0 | 81.1 | 15.1 | 13 |
| 11-18 | 5.9 | 3.9 | 53.0 | 10.7 | 42 |
Returning from injury, Metcalf played behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
He had four or fewer receptions in each of the final seven games to close the season.
He ended the year 31st in ESPN's Open Score for wide receivers, his lowest grade in that metric since his rookie season.
Outside of his injury, Metcalf also struggled to find consistent targets with a high success rate in Ryan Grubb’s offense.
Metcalf is coming off a year where he was forced to live on his highest rate of targets downfield.
31.5% of his targets came 20 or more yards downfield.
Despite missing two games, Metcalf had 34 of those targets, the most in a season.
As a byproduct, 41 of his targets ended up as contested catches, the most in the NFL last season.
Living on a diet of downfield targets, Metcalf had his lowest target rate per route run since his rookie season.
Is Metcalf’s short-term utilization outlook going to improve in an Arthur Smith offense?
That is a tough bet to make.
Pittsburgh wide receivers averaged 12.9 air yards per target last season, the most in the NFL.
18.1% of their wide receiver routes were Go routes, the second-highest rate in the league.
Arthur Smith Offenses
| Year | Tm | Pass Play | DB% | Rank | PROE% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | TEN | 504 | 56.0% | 29 | -6.0% |
| 2020 | TEN | 510 | 51.4% | 30 | -9.0% |
| 2021 | ATL | 613 | 62.5% | 11 | -1.0% |
| 2022 | ATL | 452 | 48.1% | 32 | -13.0% |
| 2023 | ATL | 570 | 54.9% | 30 | -9.0% |
| 2024 | PIT | 548 | 53.9% | 28 | -7.0% |
The Seahawks ran 99 more passing plays than the Steelers last season.
Smith has never run an offense that has thrown the football above pass rate expectations, adjusting for game scripts.
This transition to Pittsburgh hurts both Metcalf and George Pickens in the short term in this system.
Both players have per-target upside, but each must be hyper-efficient on limited volume.
Pickens was already volatile when he controlled the target volume when Pittsburgh did throw.
Pickens was targeted on 23.7% of his routes, which was WR19 among receivers to run 300 or more routes.
When he was on the field, Pickens accounted for 29.5% of Pittsburgh's targets and 48.3% of the team’s air yards, rates that will take a severe hit with Metcalf joining the roster.
The move to acquire Metcalf could also indicate that Pickens’ time in Pittsburgh is limited.
Pickens is set to be an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Outside of Metcalf, Roman Wilson and Ben Skowronek are the only wide receivers under contract beyond 2025.
The Steelers selected Wilson in the third draft round last year, but injuries marred his rookie campaign.
Wilson suffered a sprained ankle in training camp, which sidelined him for the first five weeks of the regular season.
He then suffered a hamstring injury, which placed him on injured reserve.
Wilson ended the year playing only five offensive snaps.
Tight End Depth Chart, Steelers:
- Pat Freiermuth
- Darnell Washington
- Connor Heyward
- Donald Parham
Pat Freiermuth caught a career-high 65 passes in 2024, turning those into 653 yards and 7 touchdowns.
Freiermuth has flashed upside at the start of his career but has not quite taken that next step among the best tight ends in the league.
He has yet to average 4.0 receptions per game through four NFL seasons.
Playing in Arthur Smith’s offense, Freiermuth was targeted on 17.5% of his routes, which ranked 28th among all tight ends with 100 or more routes run.
Freiermuth inked an extension through the 2028 season despite his limited output in the stat sheet.
Pittsburgh has young depth at the position, with Darnell Washington having two more years remaining on his rookie contract.
Offensive Line Depth Chart, Steelers:
LT: Broderick Jones, Dylan Cook
LG: Isaac Seumalo, Spencer Anderson
C: Zach Frazier, Ryan McCollum, Lecitus Smith
RG: Mason McCormick, Steven Jones
RT: Troy Fautanu, Calvin Anderson, Doug Nester
The Steelers were in the middle of the pack up front last season.
Per ESPN, they ranked 13th in pass block win rate (62%) and 18th in run block win rate (71%).
At Pro Football Focus, they ranked 15th in pass blocking grade and ninth in run blocking grade.
That was a solid outcome, factoring in all of the early-season injuries they suffered on the line.
Broderick Jones and Dan Moore Jr. were the only linemen to appear in all 17 games last season.
The team selected Troy Fautanu in the first round last season at 20th overall.
A preseason knee injury forced Fautanu to miss Week 1, but he then started in Week 2, allowing no sacks or pressures at right tackle.
He then suffered a dislocated kneecap that forced him to miss the remainder of the season.
Right guard James Daniels played in only four games, and left guard Isaac Seumalo missed four games with injuries.
Daniels and Moore left the team in free agency this offseason.
Mason McCormick started 14 games as a rookie, finishing 59th among guards per Pro Football Focus.
The Steelers have double-dipped on offensive tackles in the first round over the past two drafts.
With Fautanu returning and Moore leaving, Jones (who was selected 14th overall in 2023) is expected to move over to left tackle.
Jones had a rough 2024, allowing a 7.1% pressure rate (76th among tackles) and committing 10 penalties (86th).
Insurance on the interior could also be added, as Seumalo will be 32 this season and will become an unrestricted free agent after the year.
Pittsburgh Steelers Defense: Depth Chart, Analysis & Draft Needs
Raymond Summerlin breaks down the defensive depth chart by position for the Pittsburgh Steelers, identifying areas where the team could improve in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft.
Defensive Line Depth Chart, Steelers:
- Cam Heyward
- Keeanu Benton
- Montravius Adams
- Dean Lowry
- Isaiahh Loudermilk
- Daniel Ekuale
- Logan Lee
- Esezi Otomewo
- Domenique Davis
- Jacob Slade
The Steelers did a good job slowing down running backs last season, allowing 4.1 yards per carry to the position (8th) and forcing a negative run on 19.9% of RB runs (8th).
They finished third in yards allowed after contact per carry to running backs (2.7).
Larry Ogunjobi left in free agency, but the rest of the core group is back for another season.
Cam Heyward will turn 36 in May, but he has not shown any signs of slowing down, earning his fourth All Pro nod in 2024.
He recorded a tackle on 19.9% of his run defense snaps, ninth among all qualified defensive linemen, and 8 sacks.
His 12.5% pressure rate ranked 38th among all qualified pass rushers, including those who play more on the edge.
Heyward will not be able to keep this up forever, but there is reason to believe he has at least a couple of good years left – his contract runs out after the 2026 season – based on what we saw last year.
On the other end of the age curve, 2023 second-round pick Keeanu Benton played the second most snaps along the line last year.
He struggled to create impactful plays, finishing with just 3 run stuffs and 1 sack on a 6.3% pressure rate.
The Steelers likely hope he can take a step forward in year three.
Pittsburgh has real questions behind those top two.
All of Montravius Adams, Dean Lowry, and Isaiahh Loudermilk got work last season and could step into bigger roles, but they are all better suited to depth spots.
Daniel Ekuale was added in free agency.
He was solid enough against the run in his first extended action on defense with the Patriots last season, but he offers very little as a pass rusher and has been just depth for most of his career.
Adding more long-term concerns, Adams, Lowry, Loudermilk, and Ekuale are entering their contract years.
Drafting a defensive lineman, perhaps early, makes a lot of sense, especially given the strength of this draft class.
EDGE Depth Chart, Steelers:
- T.J. Watt
- Alex Highsmith
- Nick Herbig
- DeMarvin Leal
- Eku Leota
- Jeremiah Moon
- Julius Welschof
- Thomas Rush
Pittsburgh’s pass rush was middle of the pack in 2024, finishing 14th in pressure rate (35.1%) and 16th with 40 sacks.
Not much needs to be said about T.J. Watt.
He logged 11.5 sacks last season, his sixth season with at least that many quarterback takedowns, but he did not get as much consistent pressure as he did in 2023.
Even so, the only question for Watt is his contract, which is set to run out after this season.
Alex Highsmith only played 11 games last season because of two separate injuries, but he finished with 6 sacks and a top-tier 17.5% pressure rate.
Nick Herbig picked up the slack behind Highsmith, getting 5.5 sacks of his own with a 12.8% pressure rate.
DeMarvin Leal was limited to five games last season and has played 432 career snaps on defense through three seasons.
He was playing more before his neck injury, though, and being used on the outside after playing more defensive line earlier in his career.
It will be interesting to see what the plan is with him moving forward.
Watt’s contract situation does open some long-term concerns, but the Steelers will almost certainly work something out with the star pass rusher.
Beyond that, they maybe could use more depth here, but overall, this unit is in good shape, assuming Watt’s contract situation is resolved.
Linebacker Depth Chart, Steelers:
- Patrick Queen
- Payton Wilson
- Cole Holcomb
- Malik Harrison
- Mark Robinson
- Devin Harper
Acquired last offseason, Patrick Queen immediately stepped in as the primary option at linebacker, playing a defensive-leading 1,090 snaps.
He was not as impactful against the run as the Steelers likely hoped, finishing 81st out of 94 qualified linebackers in PFF’s run stop rate, and he took a step back in coverage, as well.
Pittsburgh will need better from Queen in year two.
A third-round pick last year, Payton Wilson shared snaps with Elandon Roberts, who left in free agency.
Wilson will likely be asked to do more as a sophomore after excelling in coverage as a rookie.
He finished fourth among qualified linebackers in quarterback rating allowed in coverage last season.
Cole Holcomb suffered a devastating knee injury late in the 2023 season that kept him out for all of 2024.
He did return to practice late in the season, a good sign for his availability moving forward.
A healthy Holcomb would give the Steelers a nice top three here, one that could be made better by free agent addition Malik Harrison.
It remains to be seen how the Steelers plan to use Harrison, who was used primarily as an off-ball linebacker by the Ravens but also saw some time rushing the passer.
Cornerback Depth Chart, Steelers:
- Joey Porter Jr.
- Darius Slay Jr.
- Cory Trice Jr.
- Brandin Echols
- Beanie Bishop Jr.
- James Pierre
- Kyler McMichael
- D’Shawn Jamison
- Cameron McCutcheon
The Steelers allowed 7.1 yards per pass attempt in 2024 (20th) but did a good job forcing turnovers and preventing touchdowns.
Pittsburgh ranked ninth in touchdown rate allowed (4.0%) and third with 17 interceptions.
Joey Porter Jr. struggled a bit in his second season, allowing 8 yards per target, but he still has allowed just 1 touchdown in his coverage and a 77.4 quarterback rating through two seasons.
He certainly has room to grow, especially when it comes to committing penalties, but Porter remains a promising young corner.
Donte Jackson and Cam Sutton are gone, but the Steelers made a splash by adding Darius Slay in free agency.
Slay is not quite at the level he was earlier in his career, but he was still a quality option for the Super Bowl Champion Eagles last season.
He should be a nice upgrade opposite Porter.
Pittsburgh also added Brandin Echols in free agency, but he has not been a full-time player in recent seasons.
A seventh-round pick in 2023, Cory Trice missed his rookie season with a torn ACL and missed a big chunk of the 2024 season due to injury, as well.
The Steelers could give him a shot to win the No. 3 job, but obviously he has to stay healthy.
Even with Slay added, this looks like a position the Steelers could address in the draft, especially since Slay is older and on a one-year contract.
Safety Depth Chart, Steelers:
- Minkah Fitzpatrick
- DeShon Elliott
- Juan Thornhill
- Miles Killebrew
- Ryan Watts
- Joshuah Bledsoe
The Steelers were in a great spot at safety even before they added Juan Thornhill in free agency.
Minkah Fitzpatrick is not coming off his most impactful season, but he remains a quality and versatile part of the Pittsburgh defense.
DeShon Elliott consistently made plays in the running game last season, ranking second among qualified defensive backs in tackle rate on running plays and ninth with 8 run stuffs.
Pittsburgh does need to figure out a contract for Elliott, who is heading into the final year of his deal, but this is a very good top three with solid depth behind that.