John Steigerwald: Viewers, Steelers offense winners in NFL Draft

America survived. Remember all of those people who trashed the NFL when it announced the draft would go on as scheduled April 24?

Here’s what ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter said April 1: “We all want to see the days where we have that distraction of football. But OTAs? That’s not happening,” Schefter said. “The offseason program? That’s not happening. The draft is happening only through the sheer force and determination and lack of foresight from the NFL, frankly. They are determined to put this on while there is carnage in the streets.”

Carnage in the streets?

The draft went off without a hitch, and America got to see Bill Belichick acting almost human in his family room with his dog.

Fans got the same analysis and overanalysis from the experts and got to see highlights of the players who were picked, and they didn’t have to watch Roger Goodell hug anybody.

There were no fans at the scene pretending to be be five times as excited as any normal human being should be about a draft pick, and Schefter chose not to sit this one out.

Let’s do it again next year.

• The Steelers offense will be better because of their second- and fourth-round picks. Wide receiver Chase Claypool, their first pick in the draft, taken in the second round, looks like a first-rounder.

He is 6-foot-4 and 238 pounds. Those used to be tight-end dimensions. His height gives him a huge advantage over defensive backs, and he looks to be exceptionally good at making contested catches.

Claypool will find the holes in the secondary and give Ben Roethlisberger an easy-to-find target. Especially in the end zone. Claypool’s size and athletic ability make him a hybrid, a perfect fit against current NFL defenses.

Running back Anthony McFarland Jr., taken in the fourth round, also could make an immediate impact. Watch his highlight reel. He’s ridiculously fast, makes people miss and will get yards that James Conner couldn’t dream of getting. He should complement the inside power running of Conner and Benny Snell (fourth round last year). McFarland is something neither Snell nor Conner is: a home-run hitter.

The Steelers had one run over 40 yards last season and only nine over 20 yards. McFarland is fast — his 4.4 time in the 40 ranked fourth among running backs at the NFL Combine — and will give the Steelers offense a dimension it hasn’t had.

Running backs have been devalued in the last several years because the NFL has become so pass happy, but McFarland, with his speed and elusiveness, can break big plays in the short passing game. Being a running back is no longer about being a 30-carry-per-game workhorse.

Only 17 running backs were drafted this season, the fewest since 2010. There were 36 wide receivers picked, the most since 2003.

• Mel Kiper Jr. has a great racket. At least he does if you think spending 365 days a year thinking about the NFL Draft is an interesting job. He’s been doing it for ESPN for almost 40 years and is almost never right.

Yet he’s consulted and counted on to predict who’s going where in what round as though he actually has more of a clue than whoever lives in every fourth house on your street.

He got four of the first six right in the first round, but the first two never were more obvious: Joe Burrow to the Bengals and Chase Young to the Redskins. Kiper predicted one of the next 26 picks correctly, and that included getting 21 in a row wrong.

But he’ll be back next year, and everybody will be waiting for that first mock draft for 2021, if it’s not out there already.

I really don’t want to know.