I hadn’t thought about the draft enough through the prism of last season. Very good read.

Well done PB.

I had intentions to write something similar, though certainly not so well put together.

I think the first two picks were great. Guys who were undervalued fell into our laps and the right thing to do then was BPA. That’s when they should have adjusted. They had a break Saturday night to step back and say, OK, we’re happy with today, now tomorrow let’s do what our plan was and that is to “Get bigger and younger on both lines.”

I drafting you should never go down a single path with blinders on. At some point you need to address need. Having said that, the FO is alot smarter than I. They know which guys can play and who can’t. You don’t just draft a need position if the guy will never pan.

I am more concerned about D-Line. At least on the O-Line they drafted a big kid from a big program, brought in a good center, feel that Chris Kemo is ready to blossom and overpaid badly for Max Starks. At least that is addressing the situation to an acceptable degree.

I don’t believe you are addressing the situation at D-Line by letting your three starters and Hokey get a year older, re-signing two guys who aren’t good to begin with (Eason and Kirschke) and are old enough to never project being any good, having only one young guy in the wings (McBean) who has never given us indication that he can ever help us and then waiting till the draft is over before you start to think about a few free agents.

Back to the FO though, maybe they all vowed to each other in the war room to sneak by one more year on the D-Line and then sign the best free agent and then draft at least two more. Maybe they felt the guys we drafted were too good to pass up and they promised what I just said.

Bottom line is I can live with everything right now, but I can’t go another year without three D-linemen coming into the fold. We are seriously running the risk of having absolutely no D-linemen. If the old guys all age out together and Eason, Kirschke and McBean aren’t any good to begin with, that’s too much to fix all at once.

High quality post. Thanks for a great contribution PB.

I share many of your concerns Maryrose. However, I think (hope) that there are some options, riskier to be sure, that are in play. I am in agreement with Datruth in that I don’t believe that Booger Mcfarland was just in town on a lark. He’s not medically ready to play, and probably would not be signed until he is which is prudent. But he might just be available later in the summer. If so, he would be a fine contributor and insurance policy for Smith and Keisel. Not a long term solution, but an adequate stop gap until the issue can be addressed more fully at a later time. Might I also say that I believe that just as the acquistion of a high quality running back and receiver can help alleviate some of the issues that we have attributed to the O-line, getting bigger, deeper and faster at linebacker can have a similar impact for our defensive issues. With Woodley and, hopefully, Timmons coming of age, the addition of Baker, Hupel and the FA we picked up from the Chiefs even with an injury to a key lineman we are less likely to see the likes of Fred Taylor running wild through our defense. We should also be able to generate a credible pass rush. Again, not a solution, just a stop gap. I can understand the frustration some feel about how the Steelers handled the second day draft picks. But I believe PB’s point was that paradigm shifts over what stands as ‘common wisdom’ can occur based upon one play in one game. The current paradigm is that lineman will make the difference between winners and losers. In a sense that is a truism about football. But in another sense, unless he is a center, no one lineman is going to turn things around overnight in Pittsburgh. And as you correctly point out, if the guy isn’t high quality or has limited growth potential then you really haven’t helped yourself at all. All the players taken have the potential to be major contributors on this team or in this league over the long haul. With Dixon, as PB so cleverly demonstrates, there may be options and opportunities beyond our short term hand wringing that could benefit this franchise well into the next decade. Is there some risk? Sure. But I commend FO for not making the mistake of reaching for bandaid solutions and taking some creative strokes that may, MAY pay dividends over the long haul.

Yeah, personally I wanted use to get at least one defensive line man in the draft, but like the FO said you can’t fill every need in every draft. Maybe next year we won’t have the luxury of drafting just the BAP in every round, but that’s football. I posted my thoughts on the Dixon draft under the round 5 draft post.

I may be wrong, but I think Dixon was the only player that came to visit we drafted. All I know is the FO is right more time than I am.

This was a great draft for the Steelers. While some picks were risky, and who knows what players pan out or not, they made the right picks, and never flinched for need. The only pick where it looked like we’d get a D-lineman was the 4th rounder, where we traded down because Bryant was off the board, and we got Hills later, another need for us. Dixon has special ability, but qb’s are a crapshoot, so he may or may not develop. The d-lineman available obviously did not have as much talent, at least to our FO, so why should they take them? O-line can be coached up, and we really only need 3 D-linemen, except for injury depth. LB’s are our KEY position on D. and QB is the key on O. We now have depth at both.

—side note: Will people please stop dissing Colt Brennan? He was a GREAT leader for UH, and has a quick release, decent arm, height, mobility, and makes SOLID decisions with the ball. He has just as much chance as almost any of these qb’s to make it in the league, with the right west-coast or spread offense.

I like both of your arguments to a point. I think this was a great draft, I love Mendenhal and Sweed. I also think that, while indeed a risky pick, Dixon can develop into a great talent on the field. I don’t quite see how anyone can say he is not a risky pick, his injury was severe, and we don’t really need another qb. Batch is quite capable and also quite content with the situation as it is. Dixon may not see the field more than a handful of times his first few seasons, which means he would just draw attention to himself, a la Seneca Wallace. I do like the pick though, the kid is a tremendous athlete. But hey, so was Kordell, so was Matt Jones. There is considerable risk involved.

As for the Dline, I’m inclined to wonder just how they plan to proceed these next few years to fill those holes, because one or two injuries and we are in serious trouble. I wouldn’t mind still seeing MacFarland make it on the team.

On a side note, I had this whole long paragraph about how if Kordell posted a 146 rating that would be better than just good. However, after doing some digging, I found out that the college rating cap is higher than the pros.

The NCAA passer rating has an upper limit of 1,261.6 and a lower limit of -731.6. The upper limit value results if every pass thrown is a 99-yard touchdown and the lower limit if every pass thrown for a 99-yard loss. A passer who throws only interceptions will have a -200 rating. Crazy.

GO PENS!!!!!!

I thought it was the best Steeler draft in the 5 I’ve followed closely. Even though they just had 6 picks going in and were picking in the bottom third of each round.

I guess the difference for me was that I never saw the O Line as being the disaster that some people did. First of all, Ben would have had the top QB rating in the league except for Brady’s freak season. The best of his 4 seasons in the Burg. Willie Parker was leading the league in rushing when he broke his leg, and was on the way to a career season as well. Those things don’t happen with an O line that needs to be completely rebuilt. The guys on the line accomplished what they did DESPITE a new line coach who appears to have an I.Q. lower than most of their uniform numbers.

When there was such a rush on offensive tackles in the middle of the first round, it was definitely time to look elsewhere. There isn’t much difference between the potential of Tony Hills, the club’s fourth round pick, and some of the position players drafted in the first round. Hills was a top flight (First Team All America) left tackle, who may be moved to guard as a pro. Brandon Albert was a top guard, who because of his draft postion and salary, almost has to move to left tackle in the pros. Which position move is the most likely to be successful would you think?

Without Alan Faneca, the line still returns 3 Super Bowl starters, along with two free agent signees who have both started at least 4 seasons in the NFL. None of them have yet reached 30 years of age. I don’t know that there is another team in the league that has five offensive linemen with the cumulative NFL starts the Steelers have without having at least one player over 30. Marvel Smith and Justin Hartwig turn 30 later this year, Kendall Simmons will be 29, Sean Mahan turns 28, while Max Starks is 26. There are four younger linemen working in behind them, Trai Essex, Chris Kemoeatu, Willie Colon, and Darnell Stapleton, along with this year’s rookie hopefuls Hills and Doug Legursky.

The defensive line is a bit longer in the tooth, but it only has to jam things up for the linebackers and defensive backs in the Steeler defensive scheme for the most part in any event. The team brought in some excellant young kids at linebacker in the past two seasons, Timmons, Woodley, Davis, and Humpal. Next draft will have to address the front line and the defensive backfeild, I would say.