NFL Draft 2015: List of Pittsburgh Steelers draft picks

The Pittsburgh Steelers have eight picks in the 2015 draft. Here is the list.

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Despite winning the AFC North, and having their most explosive offense in team history (probably), 2014 was a bit of a disappointment for the Pittsburgh Steelers. One reason is that despite the already stated facts, the Steel Curtain disintegrated into a flimsy towel. The defense regressed to levels unimaginable in the Steel City.

Long-time defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau was very politely pushed out of town. Troy Polamalu retired as did cornerback Ike Taylor. The front-seven is no longer the strength of the team, and the backend of the defense is as big a question mark as any team has in the NFL—especially among teams expected to contend annually.

And the Steelers famously pay little attention to free agency, as if they’re allergic to it. The potentially good news is that they hold an extra pick in this year’s draft, giving them eight total. And they are historically among the best drafting teams in the league.

The problem is that they prefer a draft-and-stash method in terms of developing talent. But there storage cubby is leaking and there’s simply not enough time to make the necessary repairs for the 2015 season, other than to apply a patchwork solution.

General manager Kevin Colbert needs to find a group of players who can come in and play meaningful snaps from the get-go, or 2015 could get ugly quickly. The offense should be fine as is, given that they’ve finally addressed the offensive line well enough that’s it’s no longer an obvious weakness.

Instead, that front-seven needs to be improved, and the secondary too. In a perfect world, the Steelers would have more than eight picks in this draft. That’s not the reality, so a trade down may be Colbert’s preferred move on draft day for the sole purpose of picking up an extra pick or two.

Even so, he’ll need to be almost perfect to find guys who can come in and play immediately. And that doesn’t generally happen with guys picked in rounds four through seven.

Here are the eight picks the Steelers hold in this weekend’s draft, which begins Thursday evening.

Round                   Pick                        Overall

1                              22                           22

2                              24                           56

3                              23                           87

4                              22                           121

5                              24                           160

6                              23                           199

6                              36                           212 (Compensatory Selection)

7                              22                           239