Mel Kiper Jr. Has Steelers Taking Jalen Hurts In 2nd Round

From ESPN.com:

I was asked last week about the possibility of Hurts going in the first round, and I said that he's likely going on Day 2. Well, Hurts is a hot name right now, and I don't think he gets out of the second round. Coaches and scouts love Hurts' intangibles, and he improved his accuracy in his season under Lincoln Riley. He fits in Pittsburgh, where neither Mason Rudolph nor Devlin Hodges showed much filling in for Ben Roethlisberger, 38, last season.

I wrote yesterday about my excitement for the Steelers to take their next great running back in next week's draft, and that still remains true. 

It could happen in the third, hell maybe even the fourth, round. Maybe they could make a trade to get it done, too. All that is still possible while also drafting Jalen Hurts to be the future quarterback down the road. 

That's what Mel Kiper Jr. believes will happen in his latest 2-round mock. I know - Kiper is rarely correct when it comes to his picks, but still thinking about this as a possibility gets me excited. 

I think he'd be perfect in Pittsburgh. He's the kind of guy I want on my team, and his skillset fits perfectly to the way the NFL is going. The Jalen Hurts that got yanked for Tua is far from the Jalen Hurts we saw last year at Oklahoma. 

He's big, athletic, can move around, and his accuracy was on a total different level last year than at the beginning of his college career. He had a 10% jump in completion percentage from 2017 to 2019 and he doubled his touchdown passes as well. 

The great part about the potential of this pick is you obviously aren't picking him to come start Day 1 like in Cincy or Miami. He'll have at least a year to learn from one of the best, get his feet wet in the NFL, and not have to be thrown directly into the fire. He automatically becomes a better backup than Mason Rudolph perhaps solely for the fact that his face is nowhere near as punchable, and Steelers fans can all sleep a little easier knowing that if Big Ben goes down, we won't have to suffer through performances like this.