Why the Pittsburgh Steelers took NC State LB Payton Wilson in the NFL draft

As NC State linebacker Payton Wilson sat on a stage at a 1Pack NIL Collective fundraiser Wednesday, he raved about his pre-draft interview with Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. 

Wilson said that was the only interview that he was starstruck by who was sitting on the other side of the table. Well, it seems like he will have to get used to seeing the Super Bowl-winning coach every day as the Steelers selected Wilson with the 98th overall pick Friday night. 

The Hillsborough, N.C., native had to wait longer than expected at his home in Orange county, sitting on a coach next to his parents, his brother, Bryse, and his girlfriend. But the phone call to accomplish a childhood dream of playing in the NFL finally came shortly after 11 p.m. 

He was a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Just before he was selected, a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said Wilson only had one ACL. The injury question seemed to diminish his draft stock, but he just needed a team to take a chance on him. 

“He’s got a shoulder and a knee injury on the ledger, which is why he’s still hanging around,” ESPN’s Field Yates said during the draft broadcast. “I know he has to hold up medically, but that tape was as good as there was for any inside backer in this class.”

That tape was all Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was worried about on draft night. 

“I look at the tape that I see,” Austin told reporters in Pittsburgh. “I let the doctors handle all the medical stuff. My job is to grade the tape as a football player and what I think and how he helps our defense. He brings some speed to our defense, he brings some physicality to our defense, an ability to cover guys. That’s what I look at.”

The Steelers had Wilson high on their board, Austin said. His traits stood out on film and in his pre-draft testing. He was productive on the field — 138 total tackles with 18.5 tackles for a loss, six sacks and three interceptions — while he ran the fastest 40-yard dash time of any linebacker at the combine this year (4.43). 

It all lined up for the Steelers and they were willing to take the ACC Defensive Player of the Year three picks before the third round closed. 

“[He has] all the things you want in a football player,” Austin said. “To see him where he was and have an opportunity to get him, we thought that was a good thing and like where we’re at with that.”

The Steelers were most intrigued by Wilson’s speed, which not only appeared at the combine, but it was evident with how he played on a daily basis. The linebacker logged 23.4 mph in a chase down tackle of Notre Dame’s Chris Tyree in Week 2. That only continued the rest of the year as he flew around the field. 

Wilson’s knack for covering a lot of ground in the middle of the field was also a key selling point for the Steelers. If he were to earn a starting spot, he would line up next to Patrick Queen, a blitz-minded linebacker, so playing in space was a necessity for Pittsburgh.

“I think his ability to run and play in space is really attractive,” Austin said of Wilson. “If he can bring the things he’s shown on college tape to us, I think it’ll be a bonus for us because he shows he can cover, he can blitz, he can do a lot of things. I think that’s always valuable when you have a guy that can do both.”

In the meantime, Pittsburgh is focused on getting Wilson up to speed with his defense. If he starts or not is up to Wilson, Austin said. He is sure to carve a role out on special teams while he works to earn a spot on the field defensively. 

But in the end, the Steelers believed they made the right decision with drafting Wilson, who they thought fit their franchise perfectly.

“I looked at what he had on tape, what our scouts thought about him, how we evaluated him against the crowd,” Austin said. “What we thought was that we found ourselves a Steelers football player.”