Steel Balls

Projected pick: 4th round. Actual pick: #66.

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From Dane Brugler’s “2019 NFL Draft Guild” available via subscription to The Athletic, here is his view of the Steeler’s new #1 pick.

Dane rated Devin as top linebacker in the class and projected him as the #10 pick overall, exactly where the Steelers snagged him. Given the eerie accuracy of that prediction I need to give Dane’s impressive draft guide a lot of respect from here on out.

Click the items below to enlarge to a more readable size.

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What time does the monkey shit fight start?
Do I still have time to get a good seat?

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Well it was a bizarre draft with punishing results for our 5th annual draft predictions contest.

Perhaps the most bizarre outcome is that our most vocally unhappy participant, mwalsh26, was also the most accurate predictor by a wide margin, and thus is our winner for 2018.

Our champion correctly predicted a S in round 1 and a WR in round 2, while nailing Joshua Frazier in round 7, giving him a total of 4 points.

In second place, we have a tie at 2 points between abennihana and estimatedprophet. Abennihana actually had 3 points but I’m docking him one for using a verbal vomit format that required me to retype his submission for scoring analysis. I can do that because I have a massive ego and dictatorial powers.

Honorable Mention goes to malsor, who correctly predicted 1st round selection Terrell Edmunds, though he was off by two rounds.

By contrast, your judge achieved zero points.

Way to go Mr. Walsh. Let’s see if you can keep up your winning streak with our next contest.

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Here we go, Steelers, here we go! Time for your draft predictions, 2018 edition. With the draft coming up in just three weeks, there’s no time to waste.

1. You will be granted one point for each pick correctly identified by name, regardless of when they are picked. For example, if you predict that John Doe will be picked in round 1 but he is actually picked in round 2, you will still get one point.
2. You will be granted one point for each correct position/round combination. The specific player need not be correct, and in fact need not be specified at all. For example, if you said the first round pick would be safety John Doe (or just safety), and the actual first round pick is safety D’Long Johnson, this would be one point. Note that if the first round pick is John Doe you will have two points, one for the correct name, and one for the correct position/round combo. If you select a multi-position player (such as S/OLB) where you did not pick the correct name you will gain a half point if the actual selection matches one of the positions of your guessed player but only if you identify both positions in the pick. For example if your pick is a DE that you project as playing OLB, then you should identify the position as OLB. If the Steelers then select a different player who is a true OLB you will get full credit. If you identify DE/OLB you will get half credit in that instance.
3. You may specify up to three UDFA picks.
4. You will gain a bonus point if you correctly predict a trade up or down.
5. In the event of a tie, the participant who entered his submission earlier will be the winner based on the time/date of submission.
6. You may revise your submission up to midnight before draft day, however such edits will change your submission time/date which could hurt you in a tie break situation.

Suggested format for submission is as follows:

• Round 1, D’Long Johnson, LS
• Round 2, George Cantu, P
• Round 3, Laquan Church, K
• Round 5-1, Demetri Jones, OT
• Round 5-2, Ethan Noonan, QB
• Round 7-1, Dra’Michael’La’Trillium Jenkins, WR
• Round 7-2, Nick Lavergne, RB
• UDFA, Antonio Morgan, CB
• UDFA, Ian March, TE
• UDFA, Irving Briggs, OLB

For full points potential, all of the above information types are needed (round #, name, position).

Good luck!

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As our members appear to be losing their guts to go for the glory, we had only 9 entries from 6 members this year. Here are the results, and it ain’t pretty.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Ah, spring is in the air. The NFL year has begun, free agents are prostituting themselves to the highest bidding johns, and our thoughts turn to our virginal loves in the upcoming draft. That means it’s time for Steel Ballers to put on their thinking caps, gaze into their steel balls, and dive headfirst into the thrills and humiliations of guessing the Steelers’ picks for 2016. Read on for rules and to submit your entry. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Steelers owe thanks to the Ravens. Click the link and I’ll explain why.

There was a fair amount of fan hand wringing and consternation following the dramatic events of 2015 Draft Day #2, when Ravens GM extraordinaire Ozzie Newsome pole vaulted over the Steelers to nab tight end Maxx Williams in the second round. Many fans had been counting on the Steelers selecting Williams and were inconsolable following the Ravens action, and even more freaked out upon learning the Steelers’ selection of cornerback Senquez Golson. Maybe the Steelers panicked, maybe the Ravens panicked, but it says here that it’s most likely the fans panicked. In any case, Steelers fans owe a debt of thanks to the Wizard of Oz.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, humility really prevents me from bragging too much, so I’ll just have to say the winner is Steelers Nation for what appears to be an excellent haul from the college ranks.

To recap the results of the contest, I made three correct guesses in my alternate mock that began with an OLB selection. I had guessed Eli Harold on the assumption that Dupree would never make it to the 22nd pick, but I am happy to be wrong on that one because things broke the Steelers way.

In that mock, I predicted the Steelers would choose an OLB, two CBs, a WR, and a TE in the first five picks and indeed that’s how it worked out. In terms of names, I correctly predicted Golson, Coates, and James, but missed on Dupree and Grant (having instead guessed at Harold and Rowe). Still, for me this is not only a personal best but almost ridiculous good luck.

I have been waiting by my phone for hours, but for some reason the FO has not yet called to invite me to join the scouting department. Maybe Colbert is afraid of being upstaged.

The runner up was Abennihana, who correctly predicted Jesse James and Gerod Holliman, and as a bonus also identified UDFA Cameron Clear.

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Steel Balls exists because way back in the day the P-G chat regulars were looking for a place to post their prognostications so that everyone could revel in their brilliance. It seems that every fan has a memory of being right about pretty much everything in Steelers history, unlike the always flawed coaching staff, front office, as well as local and national media.

Turns out that maybe our memories are a little inaccurate and that we don’t guess correctly nearly as often as we seem to recall. Once those predictions are posted for all the world to see and review, it becomes more difficult to be so omniscient as we might wish.

So here is your chance to put your brilliance on display. We’ve all enjoyed reviewing various draft options and mock after mock for the past couple of months. Now that the draft is upon us, let us record for posterity our best prognostications, after which we can know who shall own the bragging rights for best Steelers insight.

As usual, I will consider myself successful if I get even one pick right, but I know the rest of you aspire to better accuracy than that.

Here are the rules:

1. We are only interested in Steelers pick predictions. This is fitting in that only the Steelers matter.
2. Remember you are predicting who you think the Steelers WILL pick, not who you think they SHOULD pick. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to drone on about the drafting incompetence of Colbert and Tomlin as the year progresses. Our purpose here today is to predict what they will do, “stupid” or not.
3. You must provide a projected pick for each round including comp picks.
4. You can provide as many as two lists. We all know that missing the first pick, particularly if the position selection is wrong, will immediately kill the rest of your predictions. As such, you get a mulligan in that you can have two completely different lists.
5. Whoever gets the most correct picks in a single mock list will be declared the winner. Correct picks are correct names, not necessarily correct rounds. The first tiebreaker is the quantity of correct names AND rounds. The second tiebreaker is the number of correct picks in both lists (assuming you submit two different lists).
6. Ravens suck.

Have at it ladies and gents!

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