Steel Balls

I’m no expert on the draft. In fact, I’m pretty much always wrong. I don’t follow college football very closely and pay little attention to these issues until the draft rolls around. In other words, at best my opinion is a gnat’s eyelash away from completely worthless. But that won’t stop me from posting an article on the subject anyway.

Based on history, my expectation is that the Steelers will effectively position themselves with pre-draft signings in order to avoid having to pick a particular position, and thus will be able to pick best available player from a pool of several positions of need. It seems clear that the majority of their picks should be for defense because they have so many areas to improve on that side of the ball, but even so the first pick could go either way. My guess is they will take the best available player from TE, WR, CB, OLB, and possibly DL.

I thought it would be fun to look at who might be there at spot 15 from among that subset of positions. For this exercise, I like to use WalterFootball.com as they do a pretty nice job of living and breathing this stuff year round. They usually summarize players in each category by indicating which round they feel the player will fall. If they feel the player will fall in the early part of the first round, they will indicate that the player is likely a “top 20” pick, for example. For our purposes we can consider players listed as likely first round, or as likely top 20, but of course it’s possible or even probably that one or more “likely top 10” picks will fall to the Steelers, as this seems to happen annually.

I’m only providing a partial snapshot of the information from WalterFootball.com. If you want to read more about these players, go directly to that site.

Eric Ebron channeling Lynn Swann.

Tight Ends – WalterFootball lists two TEs as likely first rounders. I’ve also included one they peg for first or second round because he’s even bigger and faster. Personally, I like the idea of a tall, fast TE for a couple of reasons. For one, the Steelers need a big  target down the middle and in the red zone to pull coverage from Antonio Brown. All three of these guys are big, and all three of them are fast enough to be too much for linebackers and maybe safeties to handle. If they pull cornerbacks then they are doing their job. Secondly, Heath Miller isn’t getting any younger and when his inevitable retirement happens he can’t be replaced by some average TE.

Eric Ebron, TE, North Carolina
Height: 6-4. Weight: 245.
Projected 40 Time: 4.65.
Projected Round (2014): 1.
12/21/13: Ebron has been phenomenal in 2013. He has produced long touchdowns and has killed teams down the middle of the field. Ebron is very fast with mismatch speed to get open. In 2013, Ebron has 55 receptions for 895 yards and three touchdowns. His blocking is much improved.

Jace Amaro, TE, Texas Tech
Height: 6-5. Weight: 260.
Projected 40 Time: 4.68.
Projected Round (2014): 1.
12/21/13: Amaro has been awesome for the Red Raiders in 2013. The junior has 98 receptions for 1,240 yards with seven touchdowns this year. He had huge days against a number of Big XII teams, including Iowa State (9-143), West Virginia (9-136), Oklahoma (8-119) and Oklahoma State (15-174).

Austin Seferian-Jenkins, TE, Washington
Height: 6-6. Weight: 266.
Projected 40 Time: 4.60.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/21/13: Seferian-Jenkins has 41 receptions for 538 yards and six touchdowns in 2013. He played well against Stanford and UCLA, but did have a fumble against the Bruins. The Washington offense seems to have put him on the back burner as it is led by Bishop Sankey, while Keith Price has favored throwing to other receivers. Seferian-Jenkins showed some improvement as a blocker and was a contributor to Sankey’s big season on the ground.

Wide Receivers – I’ll list the top two here. Watkins is fast, but Evans is big. There is a good chance that neither will make it to 15. Once you get past this pair, there are a bunch of good receivers further down the list, as usual, and the Steelers are pretty good at finding talented wideouts. A lot of people salivate over gigantic or super fast receivers, but not me. For one thing, those guys are only really valuable if there is a credible threat of the deep pass, so that means the receiver needs to be more aggressive and reliable than Mike Wallace AND the quarterback needs to be more accurate on deep timing throws than Ben Roethlisberger. Overall, I think the Steelers are better served (and the OL less taxed) by pairing crafty, quick WRs with big, reliable TEs, keeping the focus mainly on the short and medium routes. Besides, those tall fast WRs usually have attitude problems and cost a fortune. Unless you have the chance to grab a Larry Fitzgerald, forget it.

Sammy Watkins, WR, Clemson
Height: 6-1. Weight: 200.
Projected 40 Time: 4.40.
Projected Round (2014): Top-20 Pick.
12/21/13: Watkins has 85 receptions for 1,237 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2013. He played well to close out the regular season, including in his matchup against South Carolina. Watkins looks like a special receiver for the NFL. He has the explosive speed to stretch a defense vertically and is a threat to score on any reception. The junior also has improved his hands, route-running and concentration this year.

Mike Evans, WR, Texas A&M
Height: 6-5. Weight: 225.
Projected 40 Time: 4.55.
Projected Round (2014): Top-20 pick.
12/21/13: Evans had stretches of dominance during the 2013 season. He destroyed Alabama (7-279) and made a lot of difficult catches for big gains along the sideline. Evans turned in another massive performance against Auburn (11-287). For the year, the sophomore has 65 receptions for 1,322 yards with 12 touchdowns. He tailed off late in the year and was held to only eight yards on four catches by Missouri cornerback E.J. Gaines.

OLB – WalterFootball lists only one high OLB and he likely won’t make it past the top 10.  Other choices would be more of a reach, so if the Steelers want to go OLB for their first pick they might look to trade down.

Anthony Barr, OLB, UCLA
Height: 6-4. Weight: 235.
Projected 40 Time: 4.65.
Projected Round (2014): Top-10 Pick.
12/14/13: Barr will take on Virginia Tech on New Year’s Eve. In his penultimate game for the Bruins, he helped beat rival USC with five tackles, three tackles for a loss, one forced fumble and two sacks. Prior to that, Barr had seven tackles with a 2.5 tackles for a loss and a sack against Arizona State. His numbers were solid, but the Sun Devils did a pretty good job of keeping him from making game-changing plays.

C.J. Mosley, OLB, Alabama
Height: 6-2. Weight: 234.
Projected 40 Time: 4.65.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/14/13: Against Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, Mosley should end his career in style. The senior had 14 tackles versus Auburn. He also got burned on some of the Tigers’ misdirection read-option runs.

Khalil Mack, OLB, Buffalo
Height: 6-3. Weight: 245.
Projected 40 Time: 4.69.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/14/13: Mack dominated Ohio State to open this season. The senior had nine tackles with 2.5 sacks versus the Buckeyes, plus an interception that he returned 45 yards for a touchdown. Mack notched a sack, a pass batted and six tackles versus Western Michigan. Early in the season, he recorded eight tackles and a sack against Connecticut.

Vic Beasley, DE/OLB, Clemson
Height: 6-3. Weight: 235.
Projected 40 Time: 4.69.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/14/13: Beasley has been a tremendous pass-rusher for Clemson in 2013. The redshirt junior has been a tremendous pass-rusher for the Tigers this season with 12 sacks already. He also has 20 tackles for a loss, 36 tackles, five passes batted, four forced fumbles and a fumble recover for a touchdown so far in 2013. After dominating, Beasley was clamped down by Florida State as the Seminoles blew out Clemson. In 2012, he had 14 tackles with eight sacks and a forced fumble.

Kyle Van Noy, OLB, BYU
Height: 6-3. Weight: 235.
Projected 40 Time: 4.65.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/14/13: Van Noy has continued to make splash plays for BYU this season. Against Wisconsin, he had eight tackles with two tackles for a loss and an interception. Van Noy had six tackles and three sacks versus Georgia Tech. He picked off a pass and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown against Utah State. A week earlier against Middle Tennessee on a tackle for a loss, Van Noy knifed through the line to tackle the running back in the end zone for a safety.

Ryan Shazier, OLB, Ohio State
Height: 6-2. Weight: 226.
Projected 40 Time: 4.68.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/14/13: In 2013, Shazier has recorded 134 tackles with 22.5 tackles for a loss, four passes broken up, four forced fumbles and six sacks. He has good instincts and covers a lot of ground with explosive speed.

Demarcus Lawrence, OLB, Boise State
Height: 6-3. Weight: 244.
Projected 40 Time: 4.69.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/14/13: Lawrence was fairly quiet in the early going of 2013, but started to heat up late in September. He turned in a big game against Air Force with nine tackles and two tackles for a loss. Lawrence recorded sacks in six straight games with 3.5 sacks coming against Nevada. The junior has 67 tackles with 19.5 tackles for a loss, 10.5 sacks and three forced fumbles this season.

Cornerbacks – WalterFootball doesn’t list a single CB they consider a sure 1st rounder, although I’ve seen a couple of these guys identified by other sources as likely first rounders. I’d love for the Steelers to pick a stud CB in the first round if he is there and worthy. Otherwise they should be able to pick up a decent CB in the second round.

Justin Gilbert, CB, Oklahoma State
Height: 6-0. Weight: 194.
Projected 40 Time: 4.47.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/21/13: In 2013, Gilbert has six interceptions, 40 tackles, seven passes broken up and one kick returned for a touchdown. He had an interception returned 31 yards for a touchdown against Iowa State and a 41-yard pick-six against Texas. Gilbert returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown against Kansas. He finished the regular season with some clutch performances. Gilbert has really improved his game as a senior and demonstrated more disciplined. He has the skill set to be a starter in the NFL.

Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, CB, Oregon
Height: 5-10. Weight: 190.
Projected 40 Time: 4.39.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/21/13: Ekpre-Olomu has had a strong junior season overall. Late in the regular season, he was phenomenal against Oregon State and wide receiver Brandin Cooks. Ekpre-Olomu showed the movement skills, speed and agility to prevent a small, speedy receiver like Cooks from gaining separation. Ekpre-Olomu had three passes broken up, one interception and 12 tackles.

Marcus Roberson, CB, Florida
Height: 6-0. Weight: 184.
Projected 40 Time: 4.42.
Projected Round (2014): 1-2.
12/21/13: The junior recorded 11 tackles with three passes broken up this season. Roberson missed three games with a PCL strain, and he was very rusty in his return against LSU. Roberson had a mixed outing against Georgia, too. He was excellent in coverage versus Miami, but got banged up during the game. Roberson had three tackles with four punts returned for 72 yards in Week 1. He then landed a suspension late in the season.

Darqueze Dennard, CB, Michigan State
Height: 5-11. Weight: 188.
Projected 40 Time: 4.56.
Projected Round (2014): 2-3.

Defensive Line – I really don’t think the Steelers will go this way, but you never know. I’m not listing Clowney because he will be long gone.

Louis Nix, DT, Notre Dame
Height: 6-3. Weight: 340.
Projected 40 Time: 5.55.
Projected Round (2014): Top-20 Pick.
12/14/13: Nix’s season ended in early November after going in for season-ending knee surgery. He had been playing with a torn meniscus and went to Dr. James Andrews to have the knee fixed. Nix has hired an agent, so he’s off to the NFL.

Ra’Shede Hageman, DT, Minnesota
Height: 6-6. Weight: 311.
Projected 40 Time: 5.37.
Projected Round (2014): 1.
12/14/13: In 2013, Hageman has 34 tackles, 11 tackles for a loss, seven passes broken up, one interception and two sacks. The senior has seen his share of double-teams this season, but he needs to become more consistent. There are times where Hageman looks unblockable with power and explosion. He has pass-rush ability and can take over games.

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So what will the Steelers do? Who knows. Like I said, I’m always wrong. But I’d like to see them take a TE in the first round and then spend the next 3-4 picks on the best available defenders. What are your thoughts?

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