PITTSBURGH -- Technically tight end is not a "need" for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but some of the best teams teams take the best player and make it work.

The Steelers have filled defensive needs the last four years but might be due for an offensive luxury as Ben Roethlisberger and Co. prep to win a few shootouts.

The team has followed the draft progress of South Dakota State tight end Dallas Goedert. Tight end coach James Daniel attended Goedert's pro days, and the team could always meet with him in the final days leading up to the draft.

The Steelers appear set with Vance McDonald as a primary pass-catching tight end. They plan to carry his $4.3 million cap hit based on his late-season progress, hoping a full year in the offseason program will prove fruitful. Jesse James will be a key factor in an offense that heavily features two-tight-end sets.

But Goedert (6-foot-5, 256 pounds) is considered by some scouts to be the draft's best pass-catching tight end, a serious threat up the seam with the flare for the spectacular catch. South Carolina's Hayden Hurst might be the draft's most complete tight end right now, while Goedert has the premium upside.

The Steelers offense has enough moving parts that it would have no problem incorporating a new tight end into the offensive attack.

And as NFL teams increasingly look for late-blooming players who will peak later, a once-skinny high schooler would give the Steelers something to mold.

"I came out of high school at 200 pounds," Goedert told me at the NFL combine. "We didn't have a weight-room program there, so I was able to get quite a bit stronger throughout college. It's a big benefit that I'm not a finished product.