Hey for everyone that reads this I saw Jason Watkins and tried to put him in my mock draft, but I couldn’t. He was the original guy I had in my 3rd round. I replaced him with a guy who won’t get past mid 2nd round. I watch Florida, but never really knew much about Watkins until I saw the list of o-lineman in the draft. I didn’t have enought to say about him so I dropped him.

I disagree with most of your picks. You have the right positions, but not the right guys. Robinson will be taken already. Loadholt is a great prospect, but he might be gone too. I’d love to take Phil, but I think Mack is the safer choice. We need a commander on that line. Also, what’s wrong with Alphonso Smith at #64? He is better than Underwood. I hope he’s there.

Don’t make a mock draft everyday.

My bad, you made a FREE AGENCY board. Sorry

I agree with you positionally for the most part, but I think a couple of these are a little off. Rounds one through three not bad, I may lean towards Trautwein (?) at tackle in the third round. Also from Florida, about the same size.

Paul Kruger… as a replacement for Aaron Smith? You know Kruger is Woodley’s size right? A Smith is 6’7" 300 lbs. There is no way I’d take a DE who’s alot smaller and put him in our defense at the same position. If he can transition to OLB, maybe. Not to dwell on it, but for a 3-4 end penetration is for the most part an after thought. A 3-4 end has to eat up blockers, and allow his OLB’s to get in on the QB.

Other than that, I’d take AQ Shipley at C, just preferencial really, has all of the attributes you used to describe Williams, like I said just preference.

I know you like this LB/ S Spencer Adkins, and I like him too, good player. But under no circumstances would I want to take a LB and make him a safety on this team. With Troy in the box and all over, you have to cover a lot of ground as the other safety, there is no way we can take a LB, regardless of speed, and trust him to cover like that. Would you take Roy Williams (the former Dallas safety) and play him opposite Troy? No way. And you expect another guy, who’s never played with that much field responsibilty and trust him to manage it. He would certainly be a “project player”, but how much of a project do you really want? A complete over haul of his game. No thanks.

But great arguement for each player. At this point it’s speculation and personal preferences that build mock drafts, we’ll have to wait and see.

I don’t believe he’s a nose tackle, and the Hampton comparison is (sorry man) not the case. They don’t nearly play the same style, and are certainly not even remotely similar body types. I didn’t know he was Ngata’s cousin until a about a month ago. I take nothing from that other than good blood lines… maybe. No he’s not as strong, but he is every bit as athletic. He showed amazing range, especially for a 300 pounder. In their bowl game he was in on a tackle 30 yards downfield. Not many DT’s making plays that far from the line. Bench presses don’t prove much at all, but if that’s the measuring stick I have to use, that’s what I’ve got. I like Hood alot, saw him play a bunch, but he isn’t a game changer either. Evander Hood is second round talent also, his stock has suddenly gone up for good reason, but isn’t taking him in that spot reaching also?

In my opinion the place we need most is an O Linemen. But it appears that we will be going into next year returning the five we had. We could upgrade along the front in this draft no doubt. But I don’t see anyone out there who can step in right away.

Mack ©- I think he’ll be gone at 32. The next best players at that position are Max Unger and Eric Wood. Unger is solid, but he has a better chance at being there at 64 than Moala. Unger doesn’t look like a starter right away, and the rotation on the O Line is still better than the defensive line. We brought back Essex to be the sixth man. Wood will most likely be there at 64, seems to be 3rd rounder from what I’ve read.

Guard- I like Duke Robinson, but very few mocks have him going round one, most show a mid to late second round grade, maybe sooner (get it Sooner, bad joke). He’s got alot of question marks around him, and I don’t think he’s worth the pick here. After him you have Herman Johnson, Andy Levitre, and Jamon Meredith (thought he was a tackle, but I’m seeing him listed at guard now, I don’t know). Do any of those names scream first round?

Tackle- God knows I want Willie Colon off this line, but are we going to take the fifth best tackle? After that many go early there is normally a lull at the position as most teams that needed one got one early, which should allow us to come back at 64 should we feel the need.

FS- Ryan Clark earned my respect last year. I really wasn’t a fan of his at all, but he proved to be a gamer, and when his contract comes up will be more affordable than most. I do think the best position to go after here is safety, as the draft is good at that position, and all the best are currently flying under the radar. That kid from Mizzou is very nice. We could actually find a great player here. I didn’t think about that.

WR- I just don’t see that guy in the group we’ll be choosing from. I see alot of really good players but the group we’ll have to choose from here will be the group we have to chose from at 64 for the most part. cough Jarrett Dillard cough. Plus we drafted fairly high at this position last year, and for a guy some said was the best in the draft (just catch the damn ball kid).

LB- The only one we take first round is Lauranaitis. Maualuga will most likely be gone. I think we’d be best served waiting on a LB here too. Maybe a Jasper Brinkley from South Carolina in the third or at 64, depending on how we grade him.

CB- There will be guys available for us to choose from in this group, and most likely some decent corners. Malcolm Jenkins is the best, I think, but he’s projected ahead of us. Same for Vontae Davis (who I’m not in favor of anyway), DJ Moore and Alphonso Smith will probably still be there, we could take one of them, I really like Alphonso Smith if we do. But we still have Deshea for another year or two, Gay looks promising, the coaches like Roy Lewis, and we brought back a servicable veteren in Fernando, need be to play nickel or dime.

I doubt we’ll be drafting a QB, HB, FB, or TE as we are pretty have guys at these spots.

So that leaves me with the one position where we haven’t taken anyone in the top half of the draft in a long time. Not that that means anything really, A. Smith 4th round, B. Kiesel 7th. We are getting old along the front. The only guys we’ve brought in to this group the past few years are Orpheus Roye, Travis Kirtchke and Nick Eason. Eason is the youngest of all and isn’t at starter level. As I said before, with as many teams switching to the 3-4 as there are, DE’s that fit the scheme will go quick. This will most likely be the only shot we have at bringing in viable youth at this spot. It is a position of need. Maybe not immediate need, but when’s the last time we drafted for right now anyway? We seem to always take guys who we feel we need in the next couple of seasons. We didn’t return any players who’s contract were up on the D Line, as opposed to us bringing back depth everywhere else.

Our team philosophy is draft centered. We bring in very few free agent, this year none so far. We are always focused on being our best today, but keeping an eye on the future. If we follow pattern, the position we will look to draft is one we will need not right away, but in the near future.
Our O-Line is young and developing (or so I hear), at HB we brought in the future last year, I think we’re okay at QB, WR is a good combo of past (Ward, still the present too, don’t get me wrong) present (Holmes) and future (Limas, don’t froget Dallas Baker too). We’re also pretty good at TE.
AT LB we have a great group, at corner we have question marks no doubt, but it appears that we may have some answers already in uniform, and at safety we’re set for now, with Mundy being a possible future starter aswell.

There is only one position we are ONLY built for now at… Defensive Line.

VERY long-winded, I’m sorry, but I felt a need to elaborate my position fully.

I doubt we’ll be drafting a QB, HB, FB, or TE *as we are pretty have guys at these spots.

*as we are pretty well set with the guys we have at these spots.

Mendenhall, Timmons, Santonio and even Troy P. had rookie seasons in which they had little impact. We don’t draft for impact players in the first round. That’s what the top ten picks are for. Those teams need instant help. You rarely find immediate impact that late in the first, especially 32nd overall, as teams picking late are fairly good across the board, thus needing less playmakers right away. We draft for future talent, hopefully great talent when ready to play, and early depth.

That was a nice explanation of the roster situation nysteeler and I certainly wouldn’t mind if the Steelers went DL in the first round, I just have my doubts Moala will be the BPA for 1.32 even at DE let alone OL, CB and a couple of other relevant positions. Tyson Jackson is probably out of reach and I’m not convinced he is that much better than the other three guys anyway. Hood and Gilbert look like better athletes than Moala but the difference between all three is perhaps not great. All have the basic frames to be successful as Steeler 3-4 DEs and the biggest advantage for Moala is his natural strength at the point of attack. One guy you didn’t mention in the DL draft discussion is NT candidate Ron Brace who might go pretty high because of the number of new 3-4 teams needing NTs. Hampton will be 33 and a free agent next year. Backup Hoke turns 33 in a few weeks. One overlooked aspect to your current DL evaluation is that the Steelers already have their backups (Kirschke, Eason and Hoke) all signed through 2010 so there isn’t the same dire necessity that resulted in them bringing back Essex, for example.

Another position I would not eliminate from the discussion for 1.32 is OLB. There are a number of those OLB/DE tweener types rated as late first-round, second-round value including Larry English. I know we have Bruce Davis around but he is not the quality of athlete we have had at ROLB for the past 20 years (Lloyd, Emmons, Porter, Harrison). Davis putting on 20 pounds in the last year is not going to make him any quicker. Nor have we yet re-signed Keyaron Fox. If the front office feels that Harrison contract talks are headed in the wrong direction, then it makes sense to draft another elite athlete to groom as his replacement. If English is available at 1.32, he is most definitely in the picture as BPA. So could WR Hakeem Nicks if he falls that far and perhaps even TE Brandon Pettigrew. Heath Miller’s next contract is coming up and Spaeth hasn’t done much to suggest he can step in as either a receiver or blocker.

I agree that the Steelers might let the draft come to them at 1.32 and perhaps be more aggressive moving up in rounds 2-4 to shape the draft around whatever position is picked at 1.32. The more you look at this draft, the more unpredictable it becomes for the Steelers’ first-rounder and they will have many options as the draft gets within half a dozen picks of their slot.