1970 NFL Draft - What if the Steelers lost the coin flip? Who would we have picked at #2?

For those that may not know the 1970 NFL draft number one overall pick came down to a coin flip between the Steelers and the Chicago Bears, both having 1-13 records. Dan Rooney, on the advice from the Chief, deferred the call to the Bears Ed McCaskey. The Bears called heads and the 1921 Silver Dollar came up tails.

The Steelers then went on to select the unquestioned #1 pick in the NFL draft, Terry Bradshaw. The Bears traded away the #2 pick to Green Bay for running back Elijah Pitts, linebacker LeRoy Caffey and offensive lineman Bob Highland from Green Bay and the Packers then picked Notre Dame's DT Mike McCoy.

The Cleveland Browns then picked Purdue quarterback Mike Phipps with the #3 pick. Four defensive linemen went in the first nine picks: McCoy at #2, Utah St. DT Phil Olsen (Merlin's younger brother) to the Patriots at #4, USC defensive end Al Cowlings (O.J. future getaway driver) to Buffalo at #5, Penn State DT Mike Reid (future Grammy award winning songwriter) to the Bengals at #7 and North Texas defensive end Cedric Hardman to the 49ers at #9.

So had the Bears won the coin flip, who would the Steelers have picked with the #2 pick? Phipps from Purdue or a highly rated defensive lineman to join Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood? Would the Steelers have waited till the 1971 draft to draft a QB? As it turned out, Jim Plunkett, Archie Manning and Dan Pastorini were the first three picks of the 1971 NFL draft.

 

Great question!

I don't know the answer for sure but I just checked the 1970 draft and it's interesting that only 2 players in the 1970 draft are in the HOF and both were drafted by the steelers! (Bradshaw and Mel Blount)

 

An interesting question for certain!


If Bradshaw had not been selected number one overall, given how invested Noll was in continually fortifying the Defense, Cedrick Ward Hardman, a Defensive End from North Texas State, would have ended up joining a fellow alum in Joe Greene imo. While Noll knew a QB would be essential, having an elite pass rush would have been the second best option.


The likes of Green, Greenwood and Hardman all on the same line?! Phew boy. Hell, Cedrick may have been a HOF Player had he had players like Greene and Greenwood alongside him. Evidence for this?! Hardman was the NFL leader in QB Takedowns (Sacks were not official at this time) in 1971. Who is to say he could not have had more with two HOF Players alongside him?!


That said, would nabbing Hardman mean getting the likes of Dwight White in 1971?!.... difficult to say for certain.



As for my second answer.... probably Archie Manning in 1971. Jim Plunkett would have been nice but Chuck Noll definitley was a Coach who enjoyed going to either the South or Deep South for College Talent. Hell, the only two Players drafted from Stanford by Noll were Roger Cowan and Isaiah Brown. Little info is known about either.

 

I think Noll would have picked Mike McCoy from Notre Dame and played HS ball in Erie. McCoy was 6'5" and weighed 280 which was gigantic back in 1970. He was the consensus defensive player of the year in college and even finished 6th in the Heisman voting. McCoy played 11 years in the league and was a good player but not a great one. Teamed up beside Joe Greene though would have really made him a better pro.
The following year àssuming that they had the #1 pick, I think the Steelers would have drafted Plunkett. He had the size and the big arm that Noll liked.

 

Were the Bears looking to draft a QB?

 

Mike McCoy would have been my first option. That said, I think Noll probably would have wanted another running mate with L.C. However, Joe Greene could have also used one as well.

 

No they weren't once I think about it. They had drafted Bobby Douglass the year before in the second round. He was a battering ram as a runner and had a rocket for an arm. He never panned out in the NFL but they didn't know that then. In retrospect the Bears probably would have drafted McCoy and the Steelers would have drafted Bradshaw anyway.

 

Well in that case Ben would have been the best quarterback the Steelers ever had

 

I believe Pittsburgh has had some good and bad coin tosses over the years. Memory shaky but I think we (Penguin fans) got Sidney Crosby because of a coin toss in our favor. Then there was the Thanksgiving where Bettis called it but refs still gave it to Detroit.

 

Great memory or thank you Google

Cool question. I like the idea of thinking we drafted another great lineman but did we really need one? I believe they wanted a QB going into the draft and would have taken the best available when their turn came. Damn glad that coin was a Pittsburgh fan

 

Only because of what Ravens did with that legend of a QB, Trent Dilford, do I think we would have won at least 1 SB with the defenses we had in the 70's. No way we win 4 without Terry. Then again, if they waited for the following year if we lost coin toss maybe we would have had a high quality QB if one was available. It's all conjecture.

Poor Trent, win a Superbowl and team dumps you.

 

Terry Bradshaw. It was meant to be.

 

That was my first question as well when I read the thread title. I think everything would have remained the same and TB would have been a Steelers anyways.

 

I thought Crosby was a ping pong ball being drawn.

 

That's it. We got the lucky ping pong ball. Well worth the 3 Cups!!!!

 

But that would have changed the course of everything that occurred afterward. The Steelers would have drafted their QB of the future the year before Ben came out so they ended up going with the OL that year. The Browns drafted Ben and won three Super Bowls with him at QB. The Steelers QB of the future never panned out after sustaining a devastating injury and their Super Bowl case would still be empty to this day. Chuck Noll was fired after the 73 season when the Steelers failed once again to have a winning record finishing 5-8-1. This began an abysmal stretch in which the Steelers had a new HC every 4 years and instead of only two coaches since Noll they’ve had 12. Instead of Franco Harris, the Steelers drafted Robert Newhouse, a Noll favorite, in the 72 draft and the Immaculate Reception never happened. The four Super Bowls in the 70s never happened either but the Bears won three with the Blonde Bomber as their field general.

Don’t mess with the past guys. It has a domino effect and we may not like the results.

I’m just glad that coin landed on TAILS!

 

There was no way that Bradshaw would not have been the first pick that year. The Bears were going to draft him.

 

LINK?

 

There’s plenty out there on the interwebs about that, so I’m not going to do your research for you.

But I will help out a little…here’s the link to google:

https://www.google.com/?client=safari

 

Never knew any of this. Great stuff.

I remember that the Steelers flipped a coin for their first rounder in 1974 between Swann and Roger Carr from Louisiana Tech. Baltimore ended up taking Carr two picks later. From what I recall, Carr was a serviceable pro receiver, and we all know how things went for Swann.

 

Good thread!

I think- and I say this with a lump in my throat- that they might have taken Mike Phipps, who for the most part was a bust although he did start at times for the Browns and Bears in his career. McCoy was a huge prospect at that time and it's highly possible they take him. It's also possible they might have traded down and taken a guy like Mike Reid from Penn State, who was an all pro for the Bengals before abruptly retiring for a music career.

Remember that the Steelers had taken local hero Terry Hanratty the year before, who had a great college career. So, they might have turned things over to him. It's still possible they become a playoff team too- the reason why they won the division in 1972 had to with Franco and the defense. Bradshaw's full development came later, and prior to 1974- had we had such a message board- I"m sure many posters here would have said that the team won in spite of him. Bradshaw was a huge prospect, and I doubt the Bears would have passed on him- there were people then who felt Douglass would have been better at tight end (and perhaps rightly so, he could run but never throw well).

In another note, it's been a while since I posted- and as I log in now I'm seeing all sorts of popups and ads on the site that was not the case in the past. Any way to get rid of these annoying things? is there a particular browser that works best with this site.

 

Chuck Noll actually considered drafting John Stallworth in the first round that year. He was finally persuaded to take Swann and that Stallworth would be available later.

 

Agree 100% about the ads!!! Those things are so annoying!

Good point about Hanratty. The Steelers may have had another Terry at quarterback in the 70s had they not won the coin toss.

 

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Has there ever been a coin flip so consequential in the history of the NFL? The ramifications of it are just mindblowing. Had the Steelers lost, it would have pretty much changed the entire destiny and trajectory of the Steelers in ways that are impossible to quantify. As a longtime lurker, I just had to finally jump in on this one!