Offense vs Defense Drafted During Steelers Tomlin-Era

I’ve went through a lot of Steelers mock drafts this year; my picks seem to be changing constantly. One trend I recently noticed among all of my mock drafts is that the vast majority of my picks are on defense. This made me think of the question:

 “Do the Steelers usually balance picks for offense & defense?”

To answer this question, I compiled some data & I made a spreadsheet of the number of offensive players drafted and defensive players drafted during the Tomlin era.

The Data:

Total Offense Drafted: 35
Total Defense Drafted: 40

Observations:

• During the Tomlin era, only 3 drafts have had the number of offense/defense players differ by more than 1 player: 2015, 2012, 2011

• Tomlin has never drafted less than 2 offensive players in a draft.

• Tomlin has never drafted less than 3 defensive players in a draft. 

• It seems for the most part that the Steelers balance out their picks between offense and defense. 

Why does this matter:

I think the relevance of this study comes from the reminder that the Steelers won’t ignore offense during the draft.

The Steelers have much greater depth problems on defense than offense, having needs at CB, S, DL, OLB, MLB – basically every position of defense. Despite this need, it's highly unlikely they ignore offense during the draft.

I would guess they draft at least 2 players on offense. Based on team need and pre-draft visits, these offensive positions are likely between: WR, OL, QB.

It's also certainly possible that offense is addressed more than people expect, due to the fact that 6 of the 9 drafts under Tomlin have had offense & defense drafted only differ by 1 player. 

Final thoughts:

When making your mock drafts and trying to guess the Steelers picks, its best you make sure you include at least 2 players on offense.

This study isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but I still find this data noteworthy, especially for those like myself who both enjoy analyzing trends and making mock drafts. It's easy to ignore offense this year, partially due to the Steelers only bringing in 3 offensive players for pre-draft visits.

So keep this in mind when making your mock drafts, I certainly will. 


Thanks for reading.