Five Burning Questions: I Feel a Draft Edition

1) I am excited about Brown. I watched some of his footage after the draft and was amazed at his athleticism. I think he will be able to cover taller receivers than his height would suggest. Finally, I think the kid has the skills to be a real ballhawk.

2) I think Lewis’s only issue may be attitude. It will be interesting to see if working with Lake will help him.

  It is all potential with these four kids. Whether Brown and Allen develop or not will depend on a combination of coaching, work ethic, intelligence and attitude.

3) Too soon to tell. I was surprised at their 1st choice if they are transitioning to a 4-3 but maybe there is a logic to their thinking that I don’t understand.

 I would have expected a receiver for McCoy sooner but it may be they want to rebuild their defence.

 Looking at their 4th round I see two guys who I would expect to be special teams, at least until they can develop a bit (a tight end with good hands is nice to have and Hillis will be living the Madden curse so Marecic will be insurance to cover that eventuality).

4) I never thought of Jimmy Smith as a serious option for the Steelers as they have been too badly burnt lately by character issues. Look at our first and 7th picks. What do you see? Character. Lots of character. The team is reloading more than just talent with this draft.

5) I knew the Steelers were thrilled with this pick by the speed with which they turned in the pick. This guy is Aaron Smith’s replacement and there was no one else left in the draft even close to him on the d-line. I am wondering if we see Aaron back of if he will pack it in. The Steelers may be wondering the same thing.

The Steelers knew there were a bunch of good mid level CBs coming up in 3 and 4. CB is not as important as the front 7 in the LeBeau defense. If the Steelers felt that Brown was better choice than Williams then picking a safety in the first wouldn’t have been a good choice when a better corner was available in the third. Skipping Dowling was more of a issue but drafting him would have been a risk and Colbert doesn’t like risky #1 picks.

1)I would say Batch. Perhaps we can now put MeMo out of his misery, trying to live up to greater expectations than should be the case. Too bad there’s no mini-camp, to ascertain Batch’ one unknown in accomplishing that: his blocking skills.
2)Burnett may have been a victim of the well-chronicled phenomenon that plagues good-drafting teams, the numbers game. We’ll never know. I think the unknown about Ike makes we wish strongly that they are better this year, because we may have to throw them to the wolves sooner than later alongside starters (gasp!) BMac and WillieG.
3)Meh. Jury’s still out because of the 2012 picks, but I’m a bit underwhelmed by their not addressing OL and skills offensive players. And of course, I’m mad at them for picking Marecic, this year’s version of Peyton Hillis. Team should only have one folk hero story per decade.
4)No, and by now, you know why: like most folks before my comment, I think we did not need that headache after the doozie duo we had last pre-season. And JS will give the Ravens a RayRay-size migraine sooner or later.
5)Yup, but in the FO I trust. I read into that they have a strong hope of keeping Ike in the fold, irrespective of the price in doing so. Ras-I may turn out to be a star, if he stays healthy, and Williams may have to switch to safety, that’s now immaterial. We can revisit in 2016, after the mandatory five-years cool-down judgement period.

1. Chris Carter. His combine numbers are incredibly similar to Worilds, and Worilds was drafted more on athletic potential than readiness to play. He has similar weaknesses (only thing he does is speed rush) and yet he was a 5th round pick when Worilds was a 2nd. He also has a pretty good shot to make the team.

2. Brown is super athletic but seems more polished then Lewis was, so he should have a chance to get on the field as a rookie. Allen is more of a gamble. It takes a while to learn our system so I don’t expect much from a CB till their third season.

3. Their draft is a lot like ours, not much flash but solid choices across teh board, and Holmgren gets a bonus pick next year. I think the Browns will be better this year and pick in the middle of the draft, and with a second first they could get two really good players.

4. No interest in Jimmy Smith. I was pretty convinced we wouldn’t be drafting a corner in the first round. We do have youth at corner, and any new kid is going to be at the back of the learning curve with a bonus lockout induced gap to boot. I don’t see this class having immediate impact.

5. Dowling doesn’t fit our style of corner like Brown does, and Williams sounds like Chad Scott, we don’t need a CB slower than McFadden, that wouldn’t be helping at all.

1) I have to go with Curtis Brown since everyone seems to be glowing about him. Makes you wonder why he slipped to the 3rd round.

2) No one can say if they will be any better. But then again, nobody can say for sure whether or not Williams or Dowlling will succeed, either.

3) I guess their goal is to accumulate as much talent as possible. However, if I were them, I’d try to find ONE impact player. Even in football—the ultimate team sport—it’s amazing what the acquisition of one franchise player can do for an organization.

4) I was listening to Jim Wextell on the radio this morning and he loves the Ravens draft. What else is new? The Ravens seem to get almost as much draft praise as they do regular season hype, but it never translates to the postseason. As for Jimmy Smith, I agree with everyone else. Too much risk for a team like the Steelers who are just getting over the bad press from last season.

5) It’s hard to say. Not easy to judge talent at the end of round one. The truly special “can’t miss” corners seem to go in the top 10 or 15. Seeing them trade up to go after Prince would have been intriguing, but staying at 31, you must go with who you think is the best player at a position of need. In this case, they thought Heyward was the best player available and they still needed to address the d-line.

1. There isn’t anyone who jumps out of the page for me in this draft. This feels like a run-of-the-mill needs draft. There weren’t any trades or big names that fell to us. I’m not saying that because the Steelers didn’t draft the guys I wanted them to draft, either. What I will say is that I have confidence in Colbert that they know what they were doing. You can’t argue too much with how they approached the draft because they did address the needs of this team, just not in the order we thought they would. I do believe that they hit on the first round draft pick and our front line on the defense will be something special for years to come if they find a suitable replacement for ‘Big Snack’ in next year’s draft. All the other picks are questionable to how they will pan out. You hope picks 2-4 can be starters but there are no promises that will happen. We could find ourselves drafting the corner back position in 2 years ago or we could be set for the foreseeable future. I hope its the latter, if not it’ll be time we stop playing around and draft a 1st round quality corner.

2. I’ll take a stab at each side of the debate. Why should we believe? Well because past success and failure are not indicative of future success and failure. You can’t just say because these two guys didn’t or haven’t panned out the way we have hoped that the next two won’t. Also look at their body types. These are completely different type of corners than Lewis and Burnett. Lewis is bigger and more bulky than the two corners we picked up and Burnett was shorter. Both corners are more athletic, around 6’0, and are slim and rangy. Very different type of corners than their predecessors. They are more of the mold of Ike Taylor than they are Bryant McFadden. So there is hope.
    As for why we shouldn’t have hope in them is that they were 3rd and 4th round picks for a reason. Although Curtis Brown was projected as a second round corner there may be a reason why he feel to the end of the third round. Bottom line is that if you want a pro-bowl corner your best bet is to draft someone in the first round. We didn’t and the best you can hope for from a 3rd round pick is a solid starter. Thats not the ceiling we were hoping for. As for Cortex Allen he hasn’t played against elite competition so he needs to take two giant steps in progression to be ready for the NFL elite receivers.
      I think the best approach is the wait and see stance and see what they do in camp, if there is one.

3. I could have sworn that the Browns were transitioning to a 4-3 defense. Yet, their first two picks were 3-4 guys. I was never high on Greg Little, to me he never produced enough to be considered to have number one receiver potential. If you look at the best WRs in the NFL they all have one thing in common. They produced in college. Big time. No mater whether they went to a big school or little school they excelled against their competition. I never saw that in Little. That may have been because of TJ Yates late progression as a QB at UNC but never the less you’re looking at a RB turned WR and it shows. He’s 6’3 but doesn’t really use his body well in the air going up for jump balls, his route running needs work on and he isn’t exceptionally fast. And thats not even including the ‘character’ issues he had, reportedly lying to team reps when asked about his role in the investigation and suspension at UNC. So I don’t think the Browns did anything special with their picks. They didn’t do anything that they couldn’t have done by staying where they were. They needed game changers on offense and defense and I don’t believe they got either one.

4. It didn’t tick me off because I don’t think the Steelers would have picked him anyway. They turned in their card way to fast for Heyward. The ravens better hope they can keep this kid out of trouble, and if anyone could they can. If they can’t that will be 2 first round picks that won’t be able to contribute and that hurts the franchise. I don’t think T.Smith is the answer for them at WR. Maryland has a reputation for sending WRs with good measurables to the NFL but not great players. He torched NCSU but that was because the coaches were too dumb to give their freshmen corner help over top. I watched that game and wondered how many touchdowns does this guy have to score before you give you give him safety help, the answer was 3 because after that they did give him help and he didn’t affect the game much and NCSU came back and failed on 4th down which cost them the game. We’ll see though.

5. Do I think they should have of course I do. Will it matter? It won’t if they guys they got come in and play light out. They are going to have to, every other team in our division got WR help in this draft. We need these corners to pan out.

Let me firstly say.

I’M GLAD THE DRAFT IS OVER!

No more mock draft after mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft….

1. Marcus Gilbert, OT, Florida. It’s hugely underrated that Pouncy and Gilbert played together. I expect the O-line to improve massively. I think the run game will become a real threat again for the Steelers, even though the league is pass happy. Not to say they didn’t do well in the run game last year, it just wasn’t a threat like Bettis or Parker. I also don’t know if Gilbert is good in the pocket at defending rushers, but the chemistry between the two is definitely a bonus. A big one, I think, with immediate positive impact. Although if Curtis Brown is as good as they say, this could have immediate impact as well in limited capacity.

2. Good question. I think since the FO decided to go after two CB’s it’s either one of two things. a) The Steelers organization thinks Joe Burnett and Keenan Lewis both suck, or b.) this is a 5 year plan, and Burnett and Lewis will see their way onto the field in 2011(or maybe they lose Lewis). This draft is to bolster backups and groom for the future. I’m a bit disappointed they couldn’t get a CB that could have an immediate impact, like Prince Amukamara or Ras-I Dowling, who we conceivably could have picked up had we not gone with Heyward. Hopefully Curtis Brown/Cortez Allen can come through. Frankly, if you backed me against a wall (and with limited information and data), I’d say neither Lewis or Burnett are as good as Allen or Brown. Maybe we’ll see in training camp.

3. Who cares. I think It’ll be a few years before they can compete against the Steelers and the Ravens, but I think it’s going to be a difficult division come 2013. Colt McCoy is a star in the making, and Holmgren always builds decent defenses.

4. Yeah, a bit. We need good corners. Two of them in fact. Ike won’t be around forever, and we really have nobody else that comes close, even though Gay has had high points. It is what it is, though, and we’ll just have to accept it. Hopefully Sweed can come through and negate whatever strength’s they gained in their def. backfield.

5. Maybe. Both would contribute right away, I think. Look at Lewis and Burnett. No real contributions other than special teams, and Lewis (if I remember correctly) has screwed up repeatedly.

I also like Baron Batch, RB, Texas Tech. It’s going interesting see him and Dwyer get it on in training camp. I might not have chosen him because of need, but the guy is going to get along very well in the locker room it seems, and my ignorant view of his highlights tells me he’s got good vision, decent speed, and makes good decisions. Maybe not a stellar highlight kind of back, but clutch. Like Memo, who some have said will see the door if Batch has a great camp or salary caps need to be massaged.

Lastly, there is one position that we have not addressed that is of extreme importance and it’s not nose tackle, although maybe we can pick up some quality with what’s left or through trades.

Safety. I could be wrong here, but I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the four guys that are supposed to be corners with either the nickle or dime packages will be groomed for safety – or maybe somebody else. Unless the coaching staff sees Ryan Clarke or Mundy as viable alternatives to Troy, I think we have a hole. I don’t think they can fill his shoes. If Polomalu gets hurt again, I think we might be in a bit of trouble and having better corners won’t help that much. I know if the corners improve, that leaves the FS to ‘roam’ again, but I don’t see anybody ‘roaming’ like Troy, and he’s 50% while injured – which doesn’t do anybody any good (see the last four games of the 2010 season. For the most part, he was kinda absent). I wonder if there has been anybody like him in the last two years available in the draft. Anybody know this answer?

Getting Heyward and Chris Carter will definitely shore up deficiencies that aren’t readily apparent this year or the next, but they are both players that seem to be prime candidates to continue the steeler tradition of stifling defenses. Whether or not they are good choices over the O line or the defensive backfield won’t be revealed until a few years has passed, as everybody has stated after-

mock draft after mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft mock draft….

1.) Obviously it has to be Heyward. If he can turn his motor on and leave it on he is going to be a dominant player. His ability to disengage from blockers leaves a little to be desired, but coaching will take care of that. I am excited because if you were to draw up the pefect 5-technique end, Heyward would fit the bill.

2.) There isn’t really a reason to believe the two we drafted this year are any better than Lewis or Burnett. We just have to hope they are.

3.) If Browns keep doing this stuff they’ll be back in contention sooner than we think. I’m still not convinced that Colt McCoy is a long-term solution though.

4.) The Ravens were lucky that he had character issues, or they would’ve had no chance at drafting him. He’s a better player than Amukamara and should’ve been the second corner off the board. But the Steelers wouldn’t have taken him anyway; too many red-flags to worry about. And it’s a shame because that kid looks like a 21st century version of Mel Blount.

5.) No on Aaron Williams, yes on Dowling. One of these days Pittsburgh is going to have to address the position in the 1st round. We can’t continue to surround the front seven with 1st round talent but not upgrade the back 4.

1) Heward. This takes care of the second position for the DL youth movement. Now we just need a NT and we should be set for another 10 years.

2) I’m not sure Lewis won’t make us all eat crow this year. He probably would have gotten the #2 last year except for his melt down in Denver. If maturity comes with age (as with most people) he might be more ready to make the jump this year. Burnett wasn’t bad, he was just cut because Butler turned into more of a steal last year. Having said that, I think Brown will push both of them within 2 years with Allen being more of a 3 year project. We can’t be to quick to judge these guys in this defense. If the coaches based everything on the rookie year then we would have cut Troy. For that reason I also have very HIGH expectations for Butler. It’s funny how we tend to move on and forget the rookies already on the roster from last year.

3) I liked the Little pick that gave McCoy a legit target. I can’t judge the rest of the draft until next year is also done, but it looks like their statements about moving to a 4-3 were a smoke screen. They drafted like they plan to stay 3-4 for the long haul.

4) No I’m not mad. Just like I wasn’t bummed out when Pacman Jones didn’t wind up a Steeler. The kid could get his act together when working with Lewis, but stupid is as stupid does – especially this year. Without any structure that rookies normally have, I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s in trouble before the league opens for business again.

5) I think either pick would be a reach at #31. Sure they could become stars, but they also could become another Ricardo. I’d hate to have us reach for that position and still have the same problems with the DL getting one year older.

1. I’m not much of a college FB guy, so I’ve got little background on any of the players. I did catch Heyward a few times and was impressed. But I’m going to opt for Marcus Gilbert because I saw what Sean Kugler did with some guys that frankly had more business on the Island of Misfit Unemployed Misshapen Dudes than an NFL playing field and was at least competitive. So perhaps I’m living on the Island of Wishfully Thinking Fandoms, but I dream of a day when our beloved Black and Gold field an offensive line that is capable of controlling tempo, grinding out 4th quarter rushing yards with a slim lead and that can protect enough to warrant more than a pair of play-action play calls per game.

2. No idea. The one time I watched Brown play, Crabtree beat him for the winning score in Mike Leach’s pinnacle win against Texas. But I do feel better that they selected 2 rather than taking 1. At least mathematically it should increase the odds that one of them turn out to be worthwhile.

3. Personally, I was overwhelmed at what they got and then underwhelmed at what they did with it. I’ve thought that the Browns at least had a workmanlike defense that could keep a decent number of games close, a solid o-line but they just can’t score. Other than Washington, they had the least productive group of skill position players in the league. I don’t think that’s going to change much next year and put me solidly in the group of Colt McCoy skeptics. Quite frankly, the late Kordell Stewart-era Steeler offenses had more firepower than the current Browns and nothing’s changed much with this draft.

4. Not disappointed that the Steelers wouldn’t get him because I figured they never would have gone that direction anyway. I will admit to being a little concerned that things fall in to place for Smith in Baltimore. I’d have been much happier to see the Ravens take another WR since they seem cursed at that position and have Smith in, say, Tampa or Detroit.

5. Here’s the concern that I had about (to some extent) Dowling and (to a greater extent) Williams: When I read the background, it sounded like carbon copy of the scouting reports on Chad Scott. A big corner with good instincts, can tackle and ball skills, but that might end up being better at safety than corner. No thanks.

1.) I would have to say that I’m most intrigued with Cortez Allen after reading what Coach Lake had to say about him on Steelers.com. I guess this guy wasn’t able to put much time into football at the Citadel. Really huge upside…in theory.
2.) Don’t know if Allen or Brown will be better than Lewis, but the law of averages says that we have to get a good corner sometime if we draft enough of them.
3.) The Browns were ungrateful. I mean, they got this GREAT gift from a team I can only assume felt sorry for them, and they go and trade part of it away for a player wyo doesn’t seem to fit their scheme, unless they were lying about the 4-3, which makes them liers. Either way…
4). Not at all ticked about Jimmy Smith. Here’s the way I look at it: If he got into that much trouble in a small college community in Colorado, how is big city life and gobs of cash in his pocket going to influence him. Ray Lewis may be able to scare him into performing on the field, but is he going to be there at the club on Wednesday night to stop him from smoking weed?
5.) I would rather of had Dowling than Williams, but just because the Hated Patriots took Dowling 33rd doesn’t mean they didn’t reach. And, just because the Hated Patriots pick the guy doesn’t make it a good pick (I repeat that once an hour). I think I would have been equally happy with Heyward or Dowling at this point – the point that they haven’t done thing one in the NFL.

And many thoughtful answers from the troops above. My go:
1) Very hard to say because many do now that I have spent some time studying them. I will probably vote for Hayward because he seems as close to a clone of Aaron as you can get…and that would be pretty great! Allen a close second, I thinkk.
2) No reason to believe…other than maybe faith/hope that C. Lake is a better evaluator of talent than Horton. Others who study film may have a better idea.
3) Underwhelmed so far, but we won’t really know for 3-4 years and I don’t make a habit of studying other teams needs vs. choices…too focused on ours.
4) No; but I will admit I would rather he went to an NFC team.
5) No…I will admit datruth and some others helped change my mind on the potential of Ras-I, but going so soon after 31, didn’t make me re-think 31. I was hoping Ras-I might fall further…and maybe to us.