INDIANAPOLIS -- As far as the Steelers are concerned, the preliminaries here at the NFL Scouting Combine are completed. Now, the main event starts.
It's highly unlikely the player the Steelers will select in the first round of the NFL Draft in April was on the field for workouts in the first three days here at Lucas Oil Stadium despite Penn State's Saquon Barkley showing why he is expected to be a top pick by running a 4.41-second 40 and tearing up the first day.
But starting Sunday, the linebackers and defensive backs take the field. And if there were odds posted on such things in Las Vegas, they would be very high that Pittsburgh's eventual first-round pick -- and possibly the second and third, as well -- will come from this group of players.
As Kevin Colbert said earlier this week, there are some obvious star-type players available at the inside linebacker position, where the Steelers will look to replace Ryan Shazier. Virginia Tech's Tremaine Edmunds (6-4, 253 pounds), Georgia's Roquan Smith (6-1, 238), Boise State's Leighton Vander Esch (6-4, 256) and Alabama's Rashaan Evans (6-2, 232) would seem to be those guys by all accounts.
"Edmunds is going to test off the charts," Kyle Crabbs, editor of NDTScouting.com told me Friday. "He's a really special player."
And still just 19 years old, bringing to mind what the Steelers have liked to do, drafting young players such as JuJu Smith-Schuster, Stephon Tuitt or even Lawrence Timmons while still 20 and allowing them to grow into their position.
It's unlikely, however, Edmunds will be available to the Steelers. And Smith is also likely to go somewhere in the teens.
That could leave the Steelers taking a close look at Vander Esch and Evans, though both of those players also could be long gone before the Steelers make their first draft pick at the 28 spot in the first round.
If that happens, the Steelers could be forced to look at safety or even cornerback.
Cornerback? Quite possibly, because the idea of moving Cameron Sutton to free safety – something you first heard here -- seems to be gaining some steam. So despite the fact the Steelers have Joe Haden, Artie Burns, Mike Hilton, Sutton and Brian Allen all under contract next season, along with Coty Sensabaugh and William Gay, if Sutton is moved to safety and Sensabaugh and Gay are not brought back, as expected, at least in the case of Gay, another quality player at that position could be added.
It's more likely, however, if the Steelers don't go inside linebacker in the first round that they instead take a safety who can, at the very least, provide another chess piece to use right away in the nickel and dime packages, if not battle for a starting job.
Alabama's Ronnie Harrison (6-2, 214) would seem to fit into that mold and could certainly be available when the Steelers pick at No. 28.
If that happens and the Steelers take an inside linebacker prospect in the second round, what takes place this weekend on the turf at Lucas Oil Stadium will be important. This draft is loaded with a lot of Shazier-sized run-and-cover inside linebackers. None of them will likely run the 4.4-second 40-yard dash Shazier turned in here in 2014. But if they run in the 4.5-second range, that's still more than fast enough to play the position.
"There are a lot of those kind of linebackers available," Crabbs confirmed. "You look at a guy like Skai Moore, out of South Carolina. He missed the 2016 season with a neck injury, but he came back in 2017 and proved he was still able to play. He had 14 interceptions as a linebacker at the college level."
That kind of playmaking ability is something the Steelers got out of Shazier and will be looking to get out of a potential replacement.
But, as Colbert noted earlier this week, "To put anybody in Ryan’s category, I think, is unfair to both Ryan and the potential player."
Unfair but inevitable, especially if the Steelers wind up taking a player with a similar body type to Shazier, a smaller linebacker whose game is based on his speed.
Here are some guys to keep an eye on with the Steelers based on what I'm hearing.
First Round Possibilities at pick No. 28: Vander Esch; Evans; Harrison; Carlton Davis, CB, Auburn.
Second Round Possibilities at pick No. 60: Justin Reid, FS, Stanford; Armani Watts, FS, Texas A&M; Tegray Scales, LB, Indiana; Jerome Baker, LB, Ohio State; Darius Leonard, LB, South Carolina State
Third Round Possibilities at Pick No. 92: Rashaad Penny, RB, San Diego State; John Kelly, RB, Tennessee; Marquis Haynes, LB, Mississippi; Moore, South Carolina