The NFL draft is the culmination of a 12-month calendar of work from the personnel department. The information gathering process begins in spring practices and exhibition games in college and lasts all the way up until the final setting of the big board in the days leading up to the draft. The coaches hop into the process late, so it is crunch time from the end of the season until the first day of the draft. The Pittsburgh Steelers have some new faces in the room, including offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
“We as coaches kind of get on a moving train after the season ends in an effort to be a component of the evaluation process,” Mike Tomlin said Monday during a pre-draft press conference posted on the Steelers’ YouTube Channel.