It is by no means ruled out that the Pittsburgh Steelers will choose a defender at the start of the NFL 2021 project. Despite reports that Ben Roethlisberger will return to the team this season, the front office acknowledges that there must be a plan for his successor.
But former NFL general manager and current NFL analyst Charlie Casserly is just taking Steeler Nation’s hopes too far with his new fake one-round project.
Casserly has four defenders coming out of the table in the first round, which is quite common among experts in NFL projects. It also has the Steelers to choose the fourth defender with the general election no. 24. The spoiler is that Casserly has former Ohio quarterback Justin Fields, who fell for that choice.
Even if Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger intend to continue their partnership, I don’t see the veteran playing much more. In an astonishing turn of events, Fields slips to number 24 (obviously, it won’t be a surprise if he goes much earlier than that) and Pittsburgh deviates from the chance to get a talented successor to Big Ben. Sitting behind a future Hall of Famer for a year is a key place for Ohio State’s perspective.
This type of scenario is a complete wish. I will not rule out that Fields will be the third or even the fourth defender in the ranking, given how different the two potentials are. There are certainly teams in which Fields is not the most suitable scheme. That being said, if Fields is in the Top 10, there will be a lot of teams that want to get up and take him and Pittsburgh could be one of them.