(Photo by David E. Klutho/Getty Images)
The Michigan pro day was today and the Steelers met with some prospects from Ann Arbor prior to today's events, according to Nick Farabaugh of Steelers Now. Edge rusher and potential first-round pick Kwity Paye has met with the Steelers and inside linebacker Cameron McGrone has met with the team as well.
McGrone said it would be a "blessing" to play with former Wolverine and Steelers inside linebacker Devin Bush. McGrone said he's talked with Bush throughout the draft process and has received advice from the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Paye at 6-foot-4, 271 pounds ran a 4.54 in the 40-yard dash and had 36 reps on the bench press at his pro day today.
"Kwity Paye is an exciting prospect whose potential and physical ability is only now beginning to be realized on the gridiron. There's an extremely high ceiling in Paye's game thanks to his athletic abilities; if his NFL team is able to continue to draw fundamental improvements out of him to allow him to continue to simply react to discard or defeat blocks, he'll be in line for plenty of explosive plays in opposing backfields. The steps Paye made in 2020 during the abbreviated season should only further fuel optimism that his development is still on an upward trajectory. Paye has won in the past most sufficiently from tight alignments and utilized his powerful hands and functional strength to diminish angles and find creases to press through and rally to the football. I do feel he's a bit more of a linear athlete and his ability to collapse tackle sets with speed to power is going to shine more frequently than his reps when looking to crash off the edge and win with finesse. Paye has been forged by fire through a challenging upbringing as an immigrant and finds his "why" in taking care of his family — he's internally driven and appears to be the kind of individual you want in your building to buy into the process. He's a home run from an intangibles, effort and tools perspective but his scheme fit is an important accommodation to make for optimal success."
"Cameron McGrone projects as a starting MIKE linebacker at the professional level. McGrone is just a redshirt sophomore who enters the NFL draft process with just 19 games and 15 starts at Michigan under his belt—a significantly small sample size that will leave teams needing a little extra clarity in order to decipher his ceiling within their respective defensive systems. McGrone claimed the Wolverines' starting MIKE LB position in 2019 after injuries forced the team to shuffle around their defensive depth chart and McGrone never looked back as a redshirt freshman. He was tremendous throughout the course of the 2019 season and while he did not quite play to that same caliber or level in 2020, he clearly has all of the physical tools needed to become a dynamic defensive playmaker for an NFL franchise as the heartbeat in the middle. McGrone operated as the MIKE in Dom Brown’s blitz-heavy defensive scheme, which has groomed McGrone to offer an NFL defense ample value on third downs and obvious passing situations. There’s not a great deal of exposure to more pure coverage reps, although he was afforded a handful of opportunities to pick-up back releases in man coverage or go flexed out wide against tight ends (Indiana 2020). McGrone also showed admirable toughness this past season, playing with a cast on his hand and continuing to play with a twitched presence who wasn’t afraid to lock horns with offensive linemen at the line of scrimmage. McGrone’s value stems from an explosive athletic profile and three-down value for the NFL game—meaning he should get a chance to crack a starting lineup fairly early on despite his lack of experience at the college level."
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