Your ‘sleepers’ and ‘your guys’ this draft

[Mick]

Who do you have as ‘sleepers’ or ‘your guys’ this year?

As always, hard to say who “my guys” are until we see where people end up being drafted. E.g., I love the CBs this year, and there are more than 10 different CBs I think would be getting end of Round 1 discussion in a different year, and a few of them are likely to fall out of the top 100. Any of those guys from Round 3 on I’d be excited about. From DAT, pretty clear I can at least say “my guys” include Zxavian Harris and Eli Heidenreich, both of whom I took 100ish picks higher than where I see them. Also really like Micah Morris, but didn’t want my DAT to turn into “lemme just grab B2B’s steelerfury board draft team”. There are about 11 excellent safeties as well…probably one will still be there in the 4th? But watch us draft a 25 year old safety with a 4.7 40 instead.

Carsen Ryan
Ryan is good at blocking, good at receiving, with essentially the best size/quickness combination in the class (255 pounds with a 6.97 3-cone; Roush has a strong argument for this though). He’s “overaged” by 10 days (August 22, 2003), which doesn’t seem all that significant to me. The other factor I assume is hurting him is length at 6’3”3/8, with 31”3/8 arms. Would like another 5/8” on both of those. RAS in the 9s as well. Somehow I’m not seeing him in top 300 lists…I might have him 150ish?

Aaron Hall
Not sure why Hall isn’t ranked higher, seeing him outside top 300s is weird. He’s slightly small for a DT at 297, but he was a 220 pound edge prospect a few years ago so fairly believable that he’s still adding bulk to his 6’4”, 33” armed frame. Two notable things in his favor: first, he led this class in TFL from the DT position, which is nice. Second, his timed agility is by far the best in this class, 4.37/7.28, pushing him to a nice 9.65 RAS (no other DT/OL comes close to those). I would have him in my top 100, assuming I have his birthday correct.
Birthday: 2003.30

Zavion Thomas
As a prospect, seems to me to be a simply much better version of Deion Burks, who Daniel Jeremiah has listed as #70 on his final ranking. Both are speed demons (who aren’t particularly good at playing WR), but Thomas is 20 months younger and 10 pounds heavier (190 vs 180). Burks had a nicer looking receiving total exceeding 600 yards vs. 493 for Thomas this past season, but Burks ran an extra 100ish routes to get those extra yards and finished slightly behind Thomas in yards/route run. That said, I’m not a Burks fan, so maybe not a worthwhile comparison; I have Thomas in the WR20 range and Burks well below.

[jebrick]

Any of these I would like a shot late in the draft.


NT Brandon Cleveland NC State - If the Steeelrs are not going to get McDonald for a NT then spend a 7th on Cleveland. NT will be rotation in any case. Cleveland does not get moved in the middle even vs double teams. What you would lose with him is movement for a wide zone run.

OT Diego Pounds ole Miss - Again, getting a developmental OT late you could do worst than Pounds. 6'6 235 has very good feet and gets out on his kickouts.

EDGE/OLB Mason Reiger (6’5 251) Wisconsin The Steelers should hire the Wisconsin OLB coach who keeps churning these guys out. At worst you get a ST deamon

+ 23.0% win rate on true pass sets during the 2025 season
+ Determined effort in pursuit
+ Active hand usage
+ Good arsenal of pass rush moves
+ Quickness off the snap
+ Impressed at the Shrine Bowl
+ 9.53 relative athletic score including a 40” vertical jump
+ 10 3/8” hand size with an 80 3/8” wing span
+ Pursuit speed

- Lacks ideal anchor strength to set the edge against the run
- 24.5% missed tackle rate and left a lot of sacks on the field because of it
- Surgery on his leg forced him to miss the entire 2024 season
- Sixth-year senior turning 24 in August of 2026