Apr 5, 2024 5 min read

By Dale Lolley

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

With April here, we’re now less than a month away from the NFL Draft.

As things currently stand, the Steelers still have some openings, most notably at center, wide receiver and slot cornerback.

That’s why the odds that their first-round draft pick in a few weeks will be … an offensive tackle.

The Steelers currently have the 20th pick in this draft.

There figures to be at least four, and possibly five, quarterbacks selected before they pick. There also will be at least three wide receivers selected along with two cornerbacks and one tight end.

There are five sure-fire first-round offensive tackles – Joe Alt of Notre Dame, Alabama’s J.C. Latham, Oregon State’s Taliese Fuaga, Washington’s Troy Fautanu and Penn State’s Olu Fashanu – and three others who could be first-round picks.

There’s a good chance one of the top five offensive tackles will be available to the Steelers. And if they aren’t, Georgia’s Amarius Mims, Oklahoma’s Tyler Guyton or BYU’s Kingsley Suamataia also deserve first-round consideration.

This is a great offensive tackle draft class. The Steelers took Broderick Jones in the first round of last year’s draft. They would love to add another, preferably one that plays right tackle, so they can move Jones to left tackle and let the rookie battle Dan Moore for a starting job on the right side.

It’s not a need like the other positions. But it’s certainly something that would make them a better team in the long term.

And the other positions can be addressed later in the draft.

When the draft provides what could be a historic amount of players at one position, why not take advantage?

A lot of people are pushing for a center in the first round for the Steelers. While that’s certainly a major need, it’s not necessary to take one in the first round and perhaps pass on better players.

• Canonsburg’s Rodney Thomas had himself a nice week.

The Central Catholic High School and Yale University product was one of the NFL’s biggest beneficiaries of the league’s performance-based pay distribution, which was announced Monday.

The program is part of the CBA and is intended to ensure that young players who outperform their contracts are compensated for their play.

Thomas, a seventh-round draft pick of the Colts in 2022, appeared in all 17 games for Indianapolis in 2023, starting 15 and played nearly 1,000 defensive snaps along with another 179 on special teams.

He finished the season with 34 tackles and two interceptions to go along with five pass defenses.

Thomas earned an additional $769,000 in performance-based pay, which was the 18th-most awarded by the NFL this year.

• The Pirates opened their season with a 5-1 road trip. That it came against two bottom-feeder teams shouldn’t really matter.

It wasn’t all that long ago that it was the Pirates who were constantly considered a bottom-feeder team.

• Nobody is feeling sorry for LSU women’s basketball player Angel Reese, who teared up when talking about all the “trouble” she had since winning a national championship last year.

In the moments after Iowa defeated the Tigers, Reese took the podium and laid out her sob story.

“I’ve been attacked so many times, death threats, I’ve been sexualized, I’ve been threatened, I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time,” Reese said, choking back the tears. “I just try to stand strong for my teammates because I don’t want them to see me down and not be there for them. All this has happened since I won the national championship. It sucks, but I still wouldn’t change.”

This is, when you play the villain, as Reese did last year in taunting Iowa’s Caitlin Clark as the clock ran out in the national championship game, don’t be surprised when people treat you like one.

And notice that when talking about the national championship, Reese didn’t say “we” won. She said “I won.”

Maybe it was a slip of the tongue. Maybe not. But Reese was suspended early this season by LSU coach Kim Mulkey for undisclosed reasons.

And the guess here is that if LSU had beaten Iowa to reach the championship, Reese would have been her typical brash self, taunting anyone in a Hawkeyes uniform near her.

You can’t play the victim and act the fool.

• The past week of heavy rains is already playing havoc with high school baseball and softball schedules, let alone track and field.

Such is the problem with playing outdoor sports in Western Pennsylvania in March and early April.

Dale Lolley hosts The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.