Why fans should trust the Steelers decision to draft CB Artie Burns in the 2016 NFL Draft

Three years ago I published my first-ever Fanpost. The leader was this: "I feel... gray".

The cause? My beloved Steelers had just wasted a precious 2nd-round pick on a running back everyone else graded as a mid-3rd value. And they passed on the linebacker that BTSC adored! I wrote something to the effect that I trusted the front office to know better than either me or the common wisdom that I was in a position to collect, but I couldn't help feeling kind of gray nevertheless. The sort of gray you feel on a cloudy, rainy day when the weather geeks had promised you sun for the picnic.

I mean really: Le'Veon Bell over Arthur Brown? What were Colbert & Co. thinking?!

Well, we all know how that one turned out...

I'm not going to hide my dismay over Artie Burns as a 1st-round pick for my beloved Steelers in 2016. It's not the pick that I would have made. And quite frankly it makes me feel sort of gray, as if someone rained on my parade when I had been promised sun instead. I'm not happy. But I've danced this dance before and as the old Scottish saying goes: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."* Perhaps I should keep my doubts to myself. The front office probably knows something I don't, and once you put your words in writing it's sort of hard to deny them later on (unless you're running for President, but that's a whole other level of gray we don't need to explore just now).

Moving on to more interesting stuff...

What does this say about how the Steelers rate CB's? The BTSC Board started with Artie Burns at 2:01 but he slid over the course of the process down toward the late 2nd. What is it that the professionals in Pittsburgh saw and we did not? Was it really all about character? If so we should make a note for the years to come.

There. You see? The day may be gray but there's at least one ray of sunshine we ought to be able to find. And you know what? No one knows better than me that rain is what you need to make things grow. For heaven's sake, morel season is just about to arrive. Those are some of the best mushrooms you can find, and out woods are about to be full of them. Yesterday's rains (and I mean the wet ones, not the draft) were just what we needed to get things started. Greene and Washington counties are going to be blooming like crazy by the start of next week. And I'm going to be out there filling a few big baskets with any luck. The rain kind of sucks when you're in the process of getting damp, but I really love the things that happen as a result.

So what's on the horizon for football and the rest of the draft? It seems to me that Day 2 is looking a little grim for the safeties. Both Karl Joseph and Keanu Neal gone in the middle of the 1st? Wow! We liked them both a lot, but not that much. Is the team going to reach for a safety too because the pickings are slimmer than we hoped for? (Uh oh, I used that word...) For that matter, the run on Defensive Tackles that everyone expected simply didn't happen. Day 2 is going to be a D-Line extravaganza from the look of things. I wonder if that is the direction we'll go, or if the team will stun us once again? Now that I think it over, I'm sort of eager to find out.

So what's the bottom line? It feels a bit gray and rainy just now, but good things are expected in real life nevertheless and experience teaches that exactly the same should be expected for my beloved Steelers. If Artie Burns turns out to be Lev Bell but an extra round better there won't be a person among us who won't be saying "I told you so" when 2019 rolls around.

Except, of course, those who are stuck with opinions in print. We will be forced to fess up and admit that maybe the professionals do it better than we do. I admit that it's not the funnest prospect in the world, but it's a whole lot better than going through life feeling gray and wet.

* Hey, it's Scottish enough. Scotty said it, he said it was Scottish, and if you can't trust the man who keeps your warp drive running there's a much bigger problem to deal with than draft picks. Right?