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Steelers draft seems to focus on leadership, character

Jarvis Jones, Le'Veon Bell and Markus Wheaton all seems like high production and high character individuals. With a team that has jettisoned a lot of young talent lately, it appears the Steelers are looking to bring in a higher level of maturity from its younger players.

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sport

It's cliche to suggest a team only drafted straight-laced choir boys, and fans will no doubt make that statement all over the Interwebs as Day 3 of the NFL draft is about to kick off.

In the Steelers' case, that seems to be the plan.

First round pick, Jarvis Jones, is known as a high-character leader. His coaches at Georgia, as biased as they are, raved about his locker room presence.

You'll find much of the same from Le'Veon Bell, the Michigan State running back the team took in the second round. It appeared he pretty much was the Spartans' entire offense in 2012, keeping the team's school-record consecutive bowl streak alive at six.

A Columbus area native, he grew up around Steelers fans. Not to suggest the general insanity that comes with die hard fans can in any way prepare a player to run the ball at the NFL level, if nothing else, he has another more personal reason to work to succeed.

Wheaton, a player who's career production grossly overwhelmed his physical size, participated in Oregon State's Beavers Without Borders program, where he traveled to Guatemala to help build a home for a family.

It's probably something to expect to continue. It's a year in which the Steelers need to rebuild, and starting by finding a future core of high integrity and high production players to mold into locker room leaders is a great idea.