Steeler Nation, Help Me Make Our Second Round Pick in the BTSC Mock Draft!

After seeing the post this morning about the Steelers' wide receiver position, and remembering Big Jay recently saying, 'Hey, are we overlooking defensive line?," etc., I feel compelled to write that indeed every position on the team, to one degree or another, is really a position of need.  There are those who mention another tight end to compliment Heath Miller, like Belichick did last year in drafting two tight ends.  The safety position can be weak and fragile and what if Mendenhall gets hurt?  The beat goes on and on.  Unless a team has Johnny Unitas at quarterback, Dan Marino as a back-up and Bob Griese as the third emergency guy, and has the same quality and depth at every single position, there is some "need" involved with every aspect of the team.

A football team, any team, comes into a draft much like a guy who just ran his bike into a bus comes into the emergency room.  The guy's arm is broke, his ankle is twisted, he has a bruise on his face, his spleen is bleeding and his glasses are broke.  What the doctors do in emergency is assess the priorities of all the guy's "needs."  They better fix the bleeding spleen first, or patching up other areas will be moot when the guy dies.  They better set the arm before they wrap the ankle so the bone will heal.  They might not do anything with the bruise, simply live with it, and they will order another pair of glasses when everything else is calm and in order.

Drafting a football team is more complicated (not more important than an emergency room, but more complicated), because you simply cannot just list the needs in priority and then fix accordingly.  Unlike the emergency room, the needs are weighed against the particular talent available at the given moment of a draft selection.  You might have a slightly bigger need at position B than A, but if player A is far superior than player B, then he will be the wisest choice....maybe...

To me, there is one position on the Steelers that represents the bleeding spleen, cornerback.  If we don't fix that, if we don't draft someone of impact, if our young bucks don't step up and especially if we lose Ivan, then nothing else will matter.  The Pittsburgh Steelers will not and cannot win another Super Bowl without fixing their spleen.  The Steelers have played 71 football games under the Mike Tomlin-Dick LeBeau regime.  They are 1-6 against guys named Manning, Brady, Brees and Rodgers. The only victory came via miracle on the last play of the game. They are 47-17 in all the other games.  The Steelers will win alot of football games in 2011, no doubt.  They will beat teams regularly who have less than Pro Bowl quarterbacks who don't have the ability to shred them.  But they cannot navigate to the promised land again unless they fix their spleen.

Other than the spleen, the guy is not going to eventually die.  Therefore, we can debate which body part to fix next.  Interestingly, we have made 57 picks in out BTSC mock draft, and there are some pretty good football players available with Pittsburgh's pick coming up soon.  So I ask you, Steelers Nation, help me make that draft choice.  I am not even going to put Ras-I Dowling in the poll.  He's the spleen doctor and from what I am hearing would be an overwhelming choice.  But what about the other body parts?    Randall Cobb is still sitiing there.  After reading the wide receiver post this morning, is he the guy?  How about Ryan Matthews?  He's a really good running back dropping late into the second round.  Jurrell Casey, Christian Ballard and Allen Bailey are still available.  After reading Big Jay's reminder that our D-Line is aging and fragile, should we go there?  Clint Boling is an offensive guard, you know we need some of that stuff.  So is James Carpenter.