NFL Draft Star Drawing Brutal Steelers Comparison

The Pittsburgh Steelers are looking to put the final touches on their running back room heading into the NFL Draft, and if their list of visitors is any indication, they've cast quite a wide net.

North Carolina's Omarion Hampton is widely viewed as the top prospect at the position behind Boise State's Ashton Jeanty, and he may be in play for Pittsburgh at No. 21 if he isn't off the board by that point.

Steelers fans are plenty familiar with the player comp Pro Football Focus gave Hampton, as they likened the 22-year-old to Rashard Mendenhall in their draft guide.

A first-round pick out of Illinois at No. 23 overall in 2008, Mendenhall's career never truly got off the ground in the Steel City.

He came into the league with lofty expectations, though he failed to land a second contract with Pittsburgh. Mendenhall appeared in just four games as a rookie due to a fractured shoulder and thus missed out on a majority of the team's Super Bowl run that year.

He did rack up 3,309 yards and 29 touchdowns on the ground from 2009 to 2011, but he fumbled six times in the regular season over that stretch and also lost one in the fourth quarter of the team's loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV.

Mendenhall coughed the ball up three times in six games during 2012, his final year with the Steelers, before closing out his career as a member of the Arizona Cardinals in 2013.

Moving back to Hampton, he logged 1,660 yards and 15 scores on 281 attempts for the Tar Heels in 2024. He took a top-30 visit with the Steelers last week after previously meeting with the organization at the NFL Combine, and while some fans may have some reservations about them choosing a running back in the first round, he'd be a seamless fit in Pittsburgh.