Steel City Underground presents our 2023 Steelers Recall: a look back at Pittsburgh Steelers games and storylines from last season.

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 campaign started off with a bang during the free agency period, leading to more speculation as to what would happen as the team approached the NFL Draft.

As the first full offseason for General Manager Omar Khan, he already made an impression by signing several key free agents, such as Isaac Seumalo, Patrick Peterson, and Cole Holcomb. While these signings filled necessary gaps, others were heavily rumored as the Steelers’ top priorities heading into day one of the draft.

Among those positions were offensive line and cornerback. With the Steelers holding the 17th overall pick, fans were curious to see if they could land a franchise left tackle or if they’d target one of the remaining top cornerbacks.

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Helping the Steelers’ cause was a top-heavy quarterback class with several needy teams willing to take a player, pushing tackles and corners down the board. Three quarterbacks – Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson – were gone with the first four picks. The other of those four picks was a surprise trade back to pick three by the Houston Texans, who selected Alabama LB Will Anderson Jr. immediately after taking Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud with the second pick.

The next two picks would pull the top-rated players at both offensive tackle and cornerback off of the board, as the Seattle Seahawks selected Illinois CB Devon Witherspoon at five and the Detroit Lions chose Ohio State OT Paris Johnson with pick six.

Tennessee OT Darnell Wright would land with the Chicago Bears at pick ten with the Tennessee Titans taking Northwestern OT Peter Skoronski next with the 11^th selection. This was good news for Pittsburgh fans, as neither Wright nor Skoronoski was projected to play left tackle in the NFL, leaving one of the biggest names – and players – still on the board as the picks wound down to 17.

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Fans were quickly targeting Georgia OT Broderick Jones as a potential fit. However, Penn State CB Joey Porter Jr. had obvious ties to the team (his dad being legendary Steelers OLB Joey Porter). Or would the team opt to go in another direction, such as Oregon CB Christian Gonzalez?

The intrigue would be built as the Lions took Alabama RB Jamyr Gibbs at 12 and the Green Bay Packers selected Iowa DE Lukas Van Ness at 13. With the New England Patriots on the board at 13, fans were nervous that cornerback was their target, while the New York Jets were up right after and had obvious ties to Broderick Jones.

Those vocal rumors would backfire on New York, as a trade was announced between the Steelers and Patriots. As it turns out, the Jets division rival worked the deal to make sure they wouldn’t have to face Jones themselves, which would’ve given new Jets QB Aaron Rodgers extra protection on his line.

Khan’s first move proved to be a shrewd one, as the Steelers swapped pick 17 for 14 and only gave up a fourth-round selection to jump the extra three spots. With the pick, the new GM selected Georgia’s Jones to be the Steelers left tackle of the future.

https://twitter.com/steelers/status/1651766910676094982

Had Khan not made the trade deal, it’s likely the Steelers would not have gotten top-tier talent at tackle. Instead, the Steelers got their guy in Jones, who allowed zero sacks during his 2022 season at Georgia.

Jones had Top-3 offensive line grades during the NFL Combine earlier this year and helped the Bulldogs win back-to-back National Championship status. He started at left tackle in the final four games of the 2021 season at Georgia and earned a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team. Jones started at and played all 15 games in 2022 at left tackle.

Khan and Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had this to say following Jones’ selection:

"I'm just excited. We got Broderick Jones." -GM Omar Khan pic.twitter.com/XHGSzJSI5s

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) April 28, 2023

Khan wasn’t through yet, but we wouldn’t see any other moves during day one of the NFL Draft. However, all eyes were on the Steelers as the intrigue continued to build into day two of the draft, with Pittsburgh holding the top selection of the second round.

Stay tuned as we recall Khan’s second and third round picks in the next column of this series.