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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Fans and media are usually wrong about their early draft analyses, but even coaching legends can turn out to be less accurate than a Joe Flacco pass under pressure. After the first day of the 1974 draft, an article by Phil Musick in the Pittsburgh Press stated that the year had “produced a skinny crop of collegians” and that the first round pick “would probably be the only meaningful one” for the Steelers. Chuck Noll agreed, stating that the draft would be worthwhile for only “about a round and a half”, meaning the pickings were slim by the time the Steelers had gotten to their second selection. In fact, this draft was so meaningless, the Steelers traded their third round pick to Oakland.
History proved Noll wrong, because although the first round pick, Lynn Swann, would turn out to be pretty meaningful, picks in rounds two (Jack Lambert), four (John Stallworth), and five (Mike Webster) each would join Swann in the Hall of Fame. Their draft class is generally regarded as the best in NFL history, not bad for a skinny crop.
We can only wonder what might have been done with that missing third round pick. Oakland used that pick to nab a pretty good Pro Bowl fullback, Mark van Eeghen. Perhaps if the Steelers had used their third round pick there would have been a butterfly effect that would have negated their brilliant downstream picks.
To read the entire article, click the image below. Note that Phil Musick bore a pretty solid resemblance to Austin Powers. Yeah, baby.
P.s. By the time that article was written, the first five rounds were done and in the books. The rest of the rounds came in day two.
Inspired by a question in today’s PG+ chat, the question is this. Imagine you are in the Steelers war room during the upcoming draft. Pick #17 rolls around and many of your top prospects are still on the board. You have only a few minutes to make your decision. Which of the following options do you take?
- draft Jarvis Jones, OLB, Georgia
- draft Kenny Vaccaro, S, Texas
- draft Cordarrelle Patterson, WR, Tennessee
- draft Justin Hunter, WR, Tennessee
- draft Tyler Eifert, TE, Notre Dame
- draft Eddie Lacy, RB, Alabama
- trade down six spots for a 2nd round and 7th round pick
Bonus question: at pick 12, Tavon Austin, WR, WVU, is still available. You have reason to believe the Panthers will draft him at pick 14. Tampa Bay offers to trade pick 13 in exchange for your first, third, and 7th round picks plus a conditional pick from next year. Do you take the deal and draft Austin?
Predict which positions you think the Steelers will select, per round. This is not intended to be a mock draft with specific players identified, but you can include some names if you want.
