Urbik: One of Colbert's Biggest Draft Busts Ever?

legursky was an UDFA that came into the league the year before urbik was drafted. kinda sad when an UDFA in the league for 2 years can out play a person you thought was one of the top 80 players coming out of college a year earlier.

granted, i think they were trying to sneak urbik on the PS but that speaks a lot if you’re willing to risk losing that player after putting a nice investment in him. he was a bad draft pick or they really gambled & lost with trying to sneak him on the PS.

and other than the 4th round picks listed above that were cut same year they were drafted (most of which were only a few spots away from 5th rd picks), there weren’t even any FOURTH round picks cut within year after they were drafted in the past 10 years (excluding this current draft class because it hasn’t been a year since they were drafted).

thanks

I believe the Steelers hoped he would pass waivers, and he would make it to the PS. Essex was going to make this team not matter what. He can play G or T ( badly in both in my opinion, but still) Urbik lost his spot because of special teams. The Steelers kept 6 WRs, 6 CBs, and 9 LBs. All of that was to improve one of the worst special teams in the league and to bring back up youth. At the cost of one developing G, it seems worth while

urbik has yet to make an impact either. he was outperformed by 2 UDFA’s (legursky and foster) the past 2 years. some of those ppl that you mention that played for other teams include ppl you say urbik is a lot better than (jackson and farmer).

even if you do think he could still turn out to be good, then it was a bad decision to cut him. either way a poor decision was made by the team with urbik. drafting a player with a high draft pick is an investment. not saying we should fire everyone on the team, just that a bad decision was made somewhere.

urbik is the HIGHEST drafted player in the past TEN YEARS to be cut a year after he was drafted. other than danny farmer and bruce davis, the next closest was drafted over 50 picks later.

  Urbik had a hard time adjusting in space , but was really strong at the point of attach.If he would have been coached by Kugler in his first year he more than likely would have made the active roster this season.
 As it was he just lost out in the numbers game. A lot of the young guys the Steelers kept will be on the inactive game day roster and they just couldn’t afford to keep Urbik on there too.

maybe i should have used a different word to describe the draft pick

I completely dropped the ball on that one. Forgot all about Sweed.

he hasn’t done anything for the team in the past 2 years, but the steelers still liked him enough to keep him around last year. and looking at it from the glass half full point of view, who knows if he woulda contributed if he didnt tear his tendon in the offseason.

i’m just saying urbik was a mistake. and not that he was the biggest mistake, but he’s up there on the list and is above bruce davis. sweed (although unlikely) could still potentially contribute and that’s part of the reason why i didn’t list him. alonzo jackson is a biggest bust right now.

some ppl argue urbik was a better football player than bruce davis, but my point is we used a higher draft pick on urbik than davis and neither will ever contribute to this team with any on the field play and we got nothing in return for them leaving.

i’ve done a pretty extensive job looking up colbert’s drafting history before (http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2010/4/28/1446084/colberts-drafting-success) and i think he does pretty well, although could sometimes do better.

the point was to highlight some of colbert’s worse draft selections. everyone seemed to make a big deal about davis being cut and being a bust last year…but urbik was a higher pick and was cut after the same period of time yet no one seemed to bat an eye. i wanted to point out that it was kinda a big deal.

See, to me, that’s a bad draft for Denver there. Yes 2 of them, Marshall and Dumervil might be amongst the best at their position in the league, one of them’s a very good receiving TE and Cutler has all the tools to be an NFL QB, but 3 of them have character issues that lead to them playing for other teams. For Denver, they’re all busts except Dumervil. And Character issues are a HUGE part of talent evaluation. They can have all the talent in the world, if they can’t stay out of jail or work with your coaches, they’re wasted draft picks.

Look, this is not the 70s where the Steelers had the jump on everyone else as fas as scouting goes. Everyone in the league (except Jacksonville and Al Davis) know who the best 50 players are, the 50 guys who are most likely to succeed in this league. Once you’re past those guys you’re guessing to some extent. Most of the guys in the 3rd round have question marks about them. Whether it be production, experience, lack of speed/strength/etc, low level of competition, medical red flags, character issues, the list goes on. Typically in the mid roudns the Steelers have tended to lessen some of those issues by going for productive players from bigger programmes. And not all of them pan out. Urbik didn’t. The fact that he might be the biggest bust Colbert’s come up with speaks volumes. Most other team’s biggest busts are early first rounders.

but as i said above, it also could be argued urbik wasn’t good enough to beat our essex or 2 players with the pedigree of UDFA with similar level of experience in the nfl. doesn’t speak too highly of him.

but most people don’t remember that. Course that was before his Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis and a major knee injury. More a bad luck story than a bust.

Kevin Barnes
Ramses Barden
Patrick Turner
Corey Irvin
Tyrone McKenzie
Chase Coffman
Juaquin Iglesias

If you’re asking “Who?” you’re not alone. Those are players drafted after Urbik in the third, all of whom have done little to nothing with their respective teams.

A few more:
Robert Brewster (no game action)
Glen Coffee (retired already)
Jarron Gilbert (released)
Jason Williams (no tackles made in 5 games played)
Richard Quinn (no catches in 15 games active)
Cody Brown (no game action)
David Veikune (no tackles in 10 games played)
Pat White (released already)
Darrius Heyward Bey (little contribution)
Andre Smith (unable to move away from the table long enough to practice, let alone play)

These were players drafted before Urbik, some as high as top 15 overall.

My point is, as we all know, there is no sure fire star in a draft, just potential. To say a third round pick is a bust, implies he was a sure thing, and failed.

In my opinion, there are no “busts” after the first 5-10 guys taken, and even some of those aren’t busts if they don’t produce. Not every draft pick will pan out, plain and simple. Not every one is expected to by the team, coaches or front office. They would like them to all work out, but it’s not realistic to think they will. Urbik showed improvement from his first year to his second… which is all you can ever want from a young player. He is far from a bust.

yeah, he has more good ones than bad ones, but doesn’t mean he doesnt make bad decisions on occasion.