I am posting this as a follow up to Neal Coolong's great piece on Kevin Colbert. In that piece Neal convincingly argues that Kevin Colbert is one of the most talented GMs in the league. I couldn't agree more. I actually started writing a post about his work following up my post about the Front Office's handling of Ben Roethisberger and Santonio Holmes during the off season. Neal just beat me to the punch. I figured I would morph into the following piece which is mainly just an excuse for me to share a very large chart with all of you. Enjoy!
Hindsight is 20-20, but making decisions in the moments takes a ton of foresight. No where is this clearer than in the NFL draft. Teams have full time departments dedicated to the process of the NFL draft. These men spend their life becoming familiar with the relative pros and cons of college football players. But on draft day everyone is an expert. There is nothing that cracks me up more in sports journalism than reading those grade the draft write-ups. I believe we should institute a new rule. Everyone who wants to "grade" the draft must commit to re-grading his own work5 years later. Take a look at this example of journalistic integrity as an example of what I mean. But I digress. What I really wanted to write about was the Steelers draft history.
The Steelers draft history under Colbert is not perfect, but it sure is solid. One way to win in the draft is to simply not miss on first round draft picks. While usually picking late in the first round, Colbert has done exactly that. Of the 11 players taken since 2000, only two of his first round picks (Plaxico Burress and Kendall Simmons are not currently starting on an NFL roster - Simmons due to an injury shortened career and Burress due to both literally and figuratively shooting himself in the foot (still there is a good chance he will start next year for the Bengals, Raiders, Ravens or some other team with a love for ex-cons)).
The only other player not currently starting for the Steelers is Santonio Holmes. As for the other first round picks, 5 have gone to the pro-bowl. They are Casey Hampton (5), Troy Polamalu (6), Ben Roethlisberger (1), Heath Miller (1) and Maurkice Pouncey (1). The other 3 Lawerence Timmons, Rashard Mendenhall and Ziggy Hood, all seem likely to make it to a pro-bowl sooner or later and have contributed more or less. The biggest disappointments of the group are probably Plaxico Burress and Santonio Holmes both of whom left Pittsburgh because of character issues. Still both played very good football while they wore a Steelers uniform.
The later rounds have been much more inconsistent. I thought it would be interesting to see how they stacked up in comparison. The spreadsheet below is intended to help us figure out how the various drafts actually rank.
The list is taken from Pro-Football Reference's draft section. It's a great site for stats bums like myself. A couple words about the columns. I added three columns:
QP (Quality Player - A player who contributed meaningfully to the team for at least a year or two)
QS (Quality Starter - A player who contributed meaningfully as a Starter - or near full time player for at least a year or two)
PB - (A player who has played at a Pro-Bowl level or made a Pro-Bowl - for example Lawerence Timmons has played at a pro-bowl level this year, even though he did not make the pro-bowl.)
So for example, Maurkice Pouncey would qualify as all three (QP, QS, PB) while William Gay would definitely be a QP and could be argued to have been a QS as well. Clearly these categories are somewhat subjective, so please feel free to offer corrections. You can see that I've tallied the numbers for each draft (including UDFA's). So for example 2001 could be argued to have produced 5 QPs but only two QS - both of whom played in a pro-bowl.
You can also see the number of games (G) each player played, the number of pro-bowl selections, number of all-pro selections, years as a starter (St) (although those are not always right) and something pro-football reference calls the Career Approximate Value (CarAv), which is supposed to calculate a player's overall worth - not sure how useful it is.
The chart is below. Couple of questions for all of you as you look at:
1. Am I missing any Undrafted free agents ?
2. How would you rank the Colbert Drafts from best to worst.
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2010 | 1 | 18 | Maurkice Pouncey | C | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | Steelers | Starter | |
2010 | 2 | 52 | Jason Worilds | DE | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | Steelers | Back-up | |||
2010 | 3 | 82 | Emmanuel Sanders | WR | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | Steelers | Starter | ||
2010 | 4 | 116 | Thaddeus Gibson | DE | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 49rs | Back-up | |||||
2010 | 5 | 151 | Chris Scott | G | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Steelers | Back-up | |||||
2010 | 5 | 164 | Crezdon Butler | DB | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | Steelers | Back-up | ||||
2010 | 5 | 166 | Stevenson Sylvester | LB | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | Steelers | Back-up | ||||
2010 | 6 | 188 | Jonathan Dwyer | RB | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Steelers | Back-up | |||||
2010 | 6 | 195 | Antonio Brown | WR | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | Steelers | Back-up | ||
2010 | 7 | 242 | Doug Worthington | DT | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | None? | ||||||
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 72 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2009 | 1 | 32 | Evander Hood | DE | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 32 | Steelers | Starter |
2009 | 3 | 79 | Kraig Urbik | T | 0 | 0 | 0 | Bills | ? | ||||||
2009 | 3 | 84 | Mike Wallace | WR | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 32 | Steelers | Starter |
2009 | 3 | 96 | Keenan Lewis | DB | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | Steelers | Back-up | |||
2009 | 5 | 168 | Joe Burnett | DB | 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 15 | ? | ||||
2009 | 5 | 169 | Frank Summers | RB | 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Steelers | Practice | |||
2009 | 6 | 205 | RaShon Harris | DT | 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Steelers | Practice | |||
2009 | 7 | 226 | A.Q. Shipley | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eagles? | ? | ||||||
2009 | 7 | 241 | David Johnson | TE | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 31 | Steelers | Starter | |
2009 | UDFA | Ramon Foster | T | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 26 | Steelers | Starter | ||
2009 | UDFA | Steve McLendon | DT | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 7 | Steelers | Back-up | ||||||
2009 | UDFA | Isaac Redman | RB | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 | Steelers | Back-up | |||||
5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 177 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2008 | 1 | 23 | Rashard Mendenhall | RB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 36 | Steelers | Starter |
2008 | 2 | 53 | Limas Sweed | WR | 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20 | Steelers | IR | |||
2008 | 3 | 88 | Bruce Davis | LB | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | OAK | Back-up | |||
2008 | 4 | 130 | Tony Hills | T | 0 | 0 | 0 | Steelers | Back-up | ||||||
2008 | 5 | 156 | Dennis Dixon | QB | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | Steelers | IR | ||
2008 | 6 | 188 | Mike Humpal | LB | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2008 | 6 | 194 | Ryan Mundy | DB | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 32 | Steelers | Back-up | ||
2008 | UDFA | Patrick Bailey | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 44 | None | ||||||
2008 | UDFA | Doug Legursky | C | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 24 | Steelers | Back-up | |||
2008 | UDFA | Donavan Woods | DB | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 32 | None? | |||||
5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 203 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2007 | 1 | 15 | Lawrence Timmons | LB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 62 | Steelers | Starter |
2007 | 2 | 46 | LaMarr Woodley | DE | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 29 | 60 | Steelers | Starter |
2007 | 3 | 77 | Matt Spaeth | TE | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 60 | Steelers | Starter | |
2007 | 4 | 112 | Daniel Sepulveda | P | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 44 | Steelers | IR | |
2007 | 4 | 132 | Ryan McBean | DT | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 31 | Denver | Back-up | ||
2007 | 5 | 156 | Cameron Stephenson | G | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2007 | 5 | 170 | William Gay | DB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 64 | Steelers | Back-up | |
2007 | 7 | 227 | Dallas Baker | WR | 2008 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | None | ||||
2007 | UDFA | Darnell Stapelton | 1 | 5 | 14 | None | |||||||||
2007 | - | UDFA | Gary Russel | RB | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 27 | None | |||||
8 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 73 | 370 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2006 | 1 | 25 | Santonio Holmes | WR | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 34 | 72 | Jets | WakenBake |
2006 | 3 | 83 | Anthony Smith | DB | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 63 | GB | Back-up | ||
2006 | 3 | 95 | Willie Reid | WR | 2007 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | None | ||||
2006 | 4 | 131 | Willie Colon | G | 2009 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 21 | 50 | Steelers | IR |
2006 | 4 | 133 | Orien Harris | DT | 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 20 | None | ||||
2006 | 5 | 164 | Omar Jacobs | QB | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2006 | 5 | 167 | Charles Davis | TE | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2006 | 6 | 201 | Marvin Philip | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2006 | 7 | 240 | Cedric Humes | RB | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2006 | UDFA | Anthony Madison | DB | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 66 | Steelers | Back-up | |||
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 71 | 278 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2005 | 1 | 30 | Heath Miller | TE | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 36 | 92 | Steelers | Starter |
2005 | 2 | 62 | Bryant McFadden | DB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 83 | Steelers | Starter | |
2005 | 3 | 93 | Trai Essex | T | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 59 | Steelers | Back-up | ||
2005 | 4 | 131 | Fred Gibson | WR | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2005 | 5 | 166 | Rian Wallace | LB | 2006 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16 | None | ||||
2005 | 6 | 204 | Chris Kemoeatu | G | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 62 | Steelers | Starter | |
2005 | 7 | 228 | Shaun Nua | DE | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2005 | 7 | 244 | Noah Herron | RB | 2006 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 23 | None | ||||
2005 | UDFA | Andre Frazier | LB | 2010 | 5 | 61 | None | ||||||||
2005 | UDFA | Nate Washington | WR | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 22 | 81 | TEN | Starter | ||
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 113 | 477 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2004 | 1 | 11 | Ben Roethlisberger | QB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 64 | 99 | Steelers | Starter |
2004 | 2 | 38 | Ricardo Colclough | DB | 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 43 | None | ||||
2004 | 3 | 75 | Max Starks | T | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 32 | 95 | Steelers | IR | |
2004 | 5 | 145 | Nathaniel Adibi | DE | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2004 | 6 | 177 | Bo Lacy | T | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2004 | 6 | 194 | Matt Kranchick | TE | 2005 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | None | ||||
2004 | 6 | 197 | Drew Caylor | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2004 | UDFA | Willie Parker | RB | 2009 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 48 | 79 | None | ||
3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 147 | 324 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2003 | 1 | 16 | Troy Polamalu | DB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 63 | 107 | Steelers | Superman |
2003 | 2 | 59 | Alonzo Jackson | LB | 2005 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 18 | None | ||||
2003 | 4 | 125 | Ike Taylor | DB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 36 | 125 | Steelers | Starter |
2003 | 5 | 163 | Brian St. Pierre | QB | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | CAR | Back-up | |||
2003 | 7 | 242 | J.T. Wall | RB | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 102 | 253 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2002 | 1 | 30 | Kendall Simmons | G | 2009 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 31 | 84 | None | ||
2002 | 2 | 62 | Antwaan Randle El | WR | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 41 | 143 | Steelers | Back-up | |
2002 | 3 | 94 | Chris Hope | DB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 39 | 137 | TEN | Starter |
2002 | 4 | 128 | Larry Foote | LB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 46 | 140 | Seelers | Back-up | |
2002 | 5 | 166 | Verron Haynes | RB | 2009 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 68 | None | |||
2002 | 6 | 202 | Lee Mays | WR | 2006 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 49 | None | ||||
2002 | 7 | 212 | LaVar Glover | DB | 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | None | ||||
2002 | 7 | 242 | Brett Keisel | DE | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 32 | 98 | Steelers | Starter |
2002 | UDFA | James Harrison | LB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 53 | 107 | Steelers | Starter | |
7 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 30 | 251 | 828 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2001 | 1 | 19 | Casey Hampton | NT | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 62 | 144 | Steelers | Hungry |
2001 | 2 | 39 | Kendrell Bell | LB | 2007 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 41 | 90 | None | |
2001 | 4 | 111 | Mathias Nkwenti | T | 2003 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | None | ||||
2001 | 5 | 146 | Chukky Okobi | C | 2007 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 78 | None | |||
2001 | 6 | 181 | Rodney Bailey | DE | 2007 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 84 | None | |||
2001 | 6 | 182 | Roger Knight | LB | 2004 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 48 | None | ||||
2001 | 7 | 218 | Chris Taylor | WR | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
2001 | UDFA | Chris Hoke | NT | 2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 108 | Steelers | Back-up | |||
5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 136 | 554 | ||||||||
Year | Rnd | Pick | Pos | To | QP | QS | PB | AP1 | PB | St | CarAV | G | Team | Status | |
2000 | 1 | 8 | Plaxico Burress | WR | 2008 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 66 | 128 | Slammers | Limping |
2000 | 2 | 38 | Marvel Smith | T | 2008 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 47 | 112 | None | |
2000 | 3 | 72 | Kendrick Clancy | DT | 2009 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 23 | 109 | None | ||||
2000 | 3 | 77 | Hank Poteat | DB | 2009 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 110 | None | ||||
2000 | 4 | 103 | Danny Farmer | WR | 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 33 | None | ||||
2000 | 5 | 137 | Clark Haggans | LB | 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 38 | 147 | ARI | Starter | |
2000 | 5 | 163 | Tee Martin | QB | 2003 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | None | ||||
2000 | 6 | 173 | Chris Combs | DE | 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | None | ||||
2000 | 6 | 204 | Jason Gavadza | TE | 0 | 0 | 0 | None | |||||||
3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 199 | 652 |