Steel Balls

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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Updated May 6th

In an effort to keep up with the standard that Walsh and I set last year by assembling a list of Steelers visits and Pro Days with an inordinate amount of attention spent on one prospect (See: Archer, Dri: 2014 Pro Day), I began assembling raw data from various sources in February. The list will be added to and changed I am sure. Please feel free to add names you may come across yourself in the comments.  (I am talking to you, Walsh!) But the rest of you should consider it an open invitation as well.

Links in Bold Green below.

Drafted players who did not visit:

Did not visit but had contact with Steelers prior to draft:

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Combine Interview and Pro Day Interview information I could gather follows below the break. There are also links associated with a handful of prospects the Steelers have paid more attention to than others. A lot like Earl’s “private” posts, the good stuff is actually below the break. As of today’s update, there are 48 prospects noted by associated links [click on their names (BOLD GREEN) that I have reason to believe the Steelers have taken a long look at because of my less than 100% verifiable, publicly available sources.

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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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This is a video tribute ripped from Youtube, with the lousy rap video track removed and replaced with L’Estasi Dell’oro by Ennio Morricone. This is sitting on our server so be patient while it downloads. Hopefully it will work reasonably well. Aside from being an awesome tune for a highlight reel, it could not be a more appropriate title for a Steelers reel.

H/T to The Wolf for putting the song in my head. It’s from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (AKA, the Steelers, the Browns, and the Ravens).

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This is the story of scientific inquiry into the nature of Sir Jarvis of Jones.

FANS:  A BUST!  A BUST!  A BUST!  We’ve got a BUST!  A BUST!
YINZER #1:  We have found a bust, might we burn him?
FANS:  Burn him!  Burn!
BLOGGER:  How do you know he is a bust?

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I’ll do an updated post when the official terms are available. This gives everyone a sense for where they’re starting. His cap number spikes dramatically next year when there is no huge dead money hit from Woodley or Colon and they expect another substantial increase in the cap.

Basically it’s a 4 year extension at $21.85 Million per year.

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Updated May 12th

Based on the week 17 depth chart and the players who are under contract for 2015 as of today (January 13, 2015), this is where I believe things stand.  Think of this as a living document that will be updated as things develop and reflect a date of revision. Please feel free to offer any feedback you might have. As Copa might write, everything will be considered but not every point of view will be taken into account. That said, sometimes out of the box thinkers bring about fresh perspective.

OPEN slots on the depth chart are marked in bold. Those openings are based on the anticipated number of players that would be kept on a 53 man roster, except at TE. They’ll likely keep 3 and there wasn’t room to reflect that and the free agents at that spot.

Free Agents are italicized and underlined. UFA is unrestricted free agent. RFA is restricted free agent. ERFA is exclusive rights free agent.

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Let me be the first out the door with a quickie mock draft. As always, I expect to be 100% wrong (although last year I got one pick right and at least one other where I was way more right than the Steelers). I post this anticipating humiliation and without the benefit of a lot of inside info, without any idea of what might happen in free agency, or, let’s be honest, without much in the way of football knowledge.

It’s easy to say the Steelers need to pick a cornerback high in the draft, but I and most fans have been saying that for three years. It’s even more true now, what with Cortez Allen’s failure to launch and the ineffective season offered by aging Ike Taylor. Yet, the Steelers are in big trouble at outside linebacker with Worilds not exactly posting Hall of Fame results and perhaps pricing himself beyond his proven value in free agency, and with Jarvis Jones yet to prove he can hold down the position and remain healthy. They also need to resign Arthur Moats who can provide solid depth and rotation. If the Steelers fail to sign Worilds, OLB will certainly be an even higher priority and will almost certainly result in some kind of free agent signing.

Although tight end is not an emergency need, the Steelers do need to begin developing a replacement for Heath Miller. The emergence of a legitimate backfield receiving threat in Le’Veon Bell along with the development of a great receiving corps has reduced the pressure to have a first round caliber receiving tight end. Still, they should look for a strong prospect with solid hands and good blocking potential in the mid rounds.

Mike Mitchell hopefully will improve at free safety, but even so there is a need for depth at the position and an eventual replacement. An additional option at running back would be welcome, to supplement Josh Harris and Dri Archer in the backup role. Some competition would be welcome at punter, although the Steelers rarely spend a draft pick on a kicking position. Offensive line depth is always welcome as well.

I am going with the following positional choices (w/ updates 3/22):

1. CB
2. OLB
3. CB
4. TE
5. OT
6. RB
   • 6c – OLB
7. P

The Steelers should also get a late round compensatory pick, but for the purposes of Mock Beta I will ignore that.

Here are my specific player choices (w/ updates 3/22):

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UPDATED. SEE BELOW

http://www.gq.com/sports/201502/roger-goodell-season-from-hell?currentPage=1

THE ARTICLE IS 3 PAGES. CLICK ON THE ARROW ADJACENT 1 OF 3 AT THE BOTTOM OF THE 1ST PAGE.

So large is Kraft’s sway with Goodell that one veteran NFL executive likes to call him “the assistant commissioner.”

Goodell said. “When we met with Ray Rice and his representatives, it was ambiguous about what actually happened.”

Within days, a lengthy ESPN investigation all but called him a liar. According to the report, not only did Rice tell Goodell exactly what happened inside that elevator….

…the nonstop drumbeat of bad news added up to a growing sense that Goodell and his owner bosses are tone-deaf to the issues that plague the NFL—and on the wrong side of history to a rising generation that increasingly sees football as too violent, too regressive, and too money-driven…

It’s also an open secret in league circles that some owners, especially Woody Johnson of the Jets, resent the preferential treatment Goodell is perceived to extend to his inner circle. (As the football world waits for the commissioner’s decision on whether to punish the Patriots for Deflategate, many are wondering how his relationship with Kraft will affect Goodell’s ruling.)

[The Ray Rice episode] reinforced a pattern that comes up again and again when you look at Goodell’s commissionership: When he’s reacting to PR crises and disciplining players, his judgment is poor. But when he’s negotiating on behalf of his owner bosses, Goodell almost never loses.

Tagliabue sees Goodell’s laser focus on profit and his combative stance toward players as key parts of the problem. “If they see you making decisions only in economic terms, they start to understand that and question what you’re all about,” he said. “There’s a huge intangible value in peace. There’s a huge intangible value in having allies.” As for his relationship with his protégé, Tagliabue says, “We haven’t talked much since I left. It’s been his decision. Bountygate didn’t help.”

Epilogue: The author has written an addendum to the original article.

http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2015/01/robert-kraft-roger-goodell.html

While reporting the piece, I heard many stories of Kraft receiving preferential treatment. One executive noted how Goodell seemed to jump to answer his cell whenever Kraft called. “Sure there’s special rules,” one league source said. “It’s the unwritten secret.” At a golf tournament last year, one source told me, Kraft is said to have called NFL headquarters and requested to be interviewed on the NFL Network. Within minutes, NFL producers in the broadcast truck were told to put Kraft on television. “Nobody else would have pulled that card,” the source said.

Kraft was reluctant to talk to me while I was reporting. One person close to Kraft told me that he was tired of being Goodell’s defender in public. The truth, of course, is that Goodell works for him. However Deflategate unfolds, the commissioner will need to tread carefully. His job security has always depended on the support of the 32 owners. And Kraft, a savvy billionaire who turned a $172 million investment in the Patriots into a $2.6 billion empire, appears to want to remind the commissioner that he is nobody’s assistant.

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