30th ranking in drafting

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2017/08/pff-ranks-steelers-30th-recent-draft-productivity/

i see their point but.......

 

Well, drafting a LS in the 6th Round this year doesn't help!

 

It does if he is on the final 53 and other 6th round picks aren't

 

I blame Tomlin... obviously.

 

We should be 30th ranked. We drafted 30th.

 

While 30th of 32 seems a bit low, PFF apparently used a Wins-over-replacement value system to come up its the score. And while it may be flawed, it's at least based on data, not opinion.

And looking over the last 5 yrs, besides the guys who didn't work out (Jarvis, Mike Adams, Dri Archer, Shamarco) you have a lot guys that people are excited about who have missed a lot time (Bud Dupree has played only 23 of 32 potential games, Golson 0 of 32, Bryant 21 of 48, Lev Bell 47 of 64). It doesn't matter how great you are if you can't play. Maybe, these guys will be annual Pro Bowlers the next 5 yrs, so far they've missed lots of games.

 

I wonder how many other teams have taken as many project players as we have?

 

what's this whole draft thing you guys keep talking about? Guess I'll have to check it out next year...

Anyway, here's a cool article on how pre-draft visits and being selected are linked to the teams that bring them in. Pittsburgh has the highest % of players hosted and drafted.

http://insidethepylon.com/nfl/front-office/2017/06/30/effect-pre-draft-visit/

 

Not sure if you remember the game where James Harrison had to longsnap for us. It wasn't pretty.

 

I remember that one....killed a guy in the 3rd row

 

Very true, but that was because Greg Warren got hurt. We won't carry two LS regardless. You can pick an LS up on the street.

 

Let's be realistic here.

 

Let's face it, Antonio Brown aside, 6th round draft choices are a longshot to make the team, much less provide meaningful contributions. If you have a chance to take a guy in the sixth round that is a) considered one of the top prospects at his position, and b)virtually guaranteed to be on the team and play in every game for years to come, I say you do it without question.

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/draft.htm

We've had ALOT of bad picks, many good and great picks (especially some late rounders and UDFAs)...but we did not draft well early 2000s...however I think our drafting has been improving, 2016 draft class has ALOT of potential

2016: Burns, Davis, Hargrave, Hawkins, Feeney, Ayers, Matakevich

2015: Dupree, Golson, Coates, Doran Grant, Jesse James, LT Walton, Chickillo, Gerod Holliman

2014: Shazier, Tuitt, Dri Archer, M Bryant, Shaquille Richardson, Wesley Johnson, Zumwalt, McCullers, Blanchflower

2013: Jarvis, Bell, Wheaton, Shamarko, Landry Jones, Terry Hawthorne, Justin Brown, Vince Williams, Nicholas Williams

2012: Decastro, Mike Adams, Sean Spence, Alameda Tam'amu, Chris Rainey, Toney Clemons, David Paulson, Terrence Frederick, Kelvin Beachum

2011: Heyward, Marcus Gilbert, Curtis Brown, Cortez Allen, Chris Carter, Keith Williams, Baron Batch

2010: Pouncey, Worilds, Emmanuel Sanders, Thad Gibson, Chris Scott, Crezdon Butler, Stevenson Sylvester, Johnathon Dwyer, AB, Doug Worthington

2009: Mike Wallace, David Johnson

2008: worse...

 

Not really. Other teams don't need a draft pick to find a LS. Why do we?

 

Finally, someone agrees with me! You can pick one up on the street.

 

It's amazing how many are not on the team

 

It does if the other LS you thought would be there ends up waived injury....

 

Free Agency then, there is no reason to draft an LS when you can help out another position. You can get a LS anywhere.

 

Well, you are up to one.

 

The problem with this argument is:
You say "there is no reason to draft an LS when you can help out another position."
LS is a position.
Our mainstay LS was going to get cut/retired.
So we have a positional need at LS.
Ergo...
We drafted the best LS in the class, where we knew what we were getting, and could be reasonably confident we were getting a starter for, injuries notwithstanding, several years at least.

The same couldn't be said for most other positions. We weren't going to find, for example, the mythical CB who can do man coverage entirely on his own all day. We needed depth at LB, but then we picked Adams, who has apparently shown some good things at camp.

I'm not a wholesale defender of the pick, but given that Round 6 is pretty much a crapshoot, if you have a guy available who could potentially plug in to the role for the long term, why wouldn't you draft him? Why waste time in camp going assessing 17 guys off the street, if the answer was right there?

 

That's it right there!

You can bring in more late round comparable talent at the CB position and evaluate them. You already know the LS is making the roster because he's a know commodity you've been watching for a few years.

 

is there a lot of difference between the best LS to the 2nd best that would have been there as an UDFA? we went to a super bowl and the playoffs two years with a guy off the street when warren got hurt and we never missed a beat. yet we may have missed out on an AB or chickillo or tom brady by making that pick instead.

 

Ask the cardinals if it's true long snappers are a dime a dozen:
SB NATION:

The Cardinals lost to the Patriots because of a bad snap. How did that happen?
11
The world learned the name of Arizona’s rookie long snapper Sunday night. That’s a bad sign.




The career of an average NFL long snapper is lengthy and anonymous. A snapping specialist can spend 10, 15 years with an organization without the majority of the team’s fan base bothering to learn hisname. The idea is that he's so successful at his one job, nobody even notices they exist.

Which is why Sunday night’s NFL debut for Cardinals long snapper Kameron Canaday had to be a nightmare. The Cardinals had valiantly driven to set up a game-winning field goal attempt, but Chandler Catanzaro hooked the 47-yarder well left. NBC’s announcers quickly identified Canaday’s subpar snap as part of the reason for the miss and Arizona’s loss.

Kameron Canaday, the rookie snapper ... You try to save a little money here and there, that snap was low and away and it just threw off the entire timing of that kick.

The implication was clear: The Cardinals’ decision to skimp on paying a few extra thousand dollars to find a quality long snapper had left them with Canaday, and Canaday had cost them their season opener. The cameras focused on the clean-shaven rookie from Portland State, the reason for Arizona’s shame.