Where 1st round picks go to die?

At one time it seemed the Steelers couldn't miss on first round draft picks, but the last several first rounders on this team are either underperforming or just outright NOT performing. I think it's gotten to the point that the Steelers need to be asking themselves why they're not getting an adequate ROI on these players. Is it scouting? Is it coaching? Is it something else? Here's a look at the first rounders since Tomlin has been the HC:

Lawrence Timmons: This is a classic example of a guy who looks like he hasn't been coached up. He has the potential to be a beast but he's essentially been stuck at square one every season. He finally seemed to be taking the next step last year but this year I think he's regressed. He's back to taking bad angles and being out of position at times. Why can't we coach this guy up?

Rashard Mendenhall: He had a couple of decent seasons but decent doesn't cut it for a highly touted number one draft pick. His career average was barely over 4 YPC and he was a major league head case. Again, he seems like a guy with immense talent who either wasn't coached properly or didn't respond well to coaching. Now he's at Pittsburgh west. SMH.

Ziggy Hood: Strongest guy on the team but it doesn't translate to the field. He was a beast in college but may be better suited as a DT in a 4-3. Go ahead and slice it anyway you want but he's been a disappointment, guys. Now he's lost his starting job and his days in the Burgh could be numbered.

Maurkice Pouncey: Took the team by storm his rookie season and has regressed since then. Some of it has been due to injury but his performance even when healthy has been sub-par many games. He seems to struggle against the big NTs and DTs he faces in the AFC North. Now we have an undrafted free agent starting at center and we really haven't missed Pouncey a bit.

Cam Heyward: He's been a late bloomer as first rounders go but maybe, just maybe, he'll finally turn into the player the Steelers thought he could be. Why has it taken him this long to crack the starting lineup?

David DeCastro: This guy was supposedly a BEAST coming out of college. Plug and play is all we heard about DD. Start him day one and he's your RG for the next decade. The kid's struggled. Don't get me wrong, the Steelers still have very high hopes for DeCastro but he hasn't been the kind of dominating presence everyone expected him to be. His most memorable block was on his own guy. What's the deal? The injury? Coaching? Both?

Jarvis Jones: This guy was a BEAST coming out of college (sounds familiar). He was absolutely a sack machine but now can't seem to get a sniff of the quarterback. He gets handled pretty easily by athletic OTs and there are a bunch of those in the NFL, just not in Black & Gold. I hope JJ gets it going and starts to build confidence going into his second season. Otherwise, a lack of confidence may plague him for awhile.

I don't know, fellas, what do you think? It just seems that our first rounders since Tomlin has been here have been nothing special though many of them were highly touted coming out of college. They've all shown flashes but most of them can't seem to establish consistency, and I think that's directly attributable to coaching! Why can't our coaches get more out of these guys?

 

I agree with most of what you said but there are some arguments that could be made. First when mendenhall was called upon and actually given the ball and able to get in a rhythm he was good. The only problem was when Ben was healthy Arians ignored him. No running back is going to have a huge year getting 15 carries a game. Pouncey is absolutely worth a first round pick. Yeah he has had an injury problem but that happens. Heyward is showing promise so it's too early to say with him and it's way to early to talk about DD and especially JJ. Timmons is not having a good year but the ability is there. My problem with Timmons is why is he not calling the defense. Is he not smart enough can he not communicate it.

 

Out of all those...the only one who ended up being the biggest disappointment was Mendy (08 was a bad draft year for a lot of teams it seems), he showed flashes at times, but then in the end for one reason or another didn't become the big star he was touted to be. Outside of that I think the others have done fine...or will do fine (when it comes to the young guys DD/JJ).

 

I don't think you can call Mendy a true bust.

 

Timmons has actually been calling the D some, I remember seeing it in the Vikings game.

 

Let me clarify one thing. I really wasn't asking who, if any, of these players are busts. I don't necessarily think any of them are busts. What I'm asking is why we don't seem to get more out of these guys than average? The real question I'm getting at is this; are these guys being coached up? Going from college to the NFL is a huge step and these guys just seem lost at times. At other times it really seems like there's something special there. I just don't think any of them have been consistent enough and that, to me, comes back to coaching.

 

Are you kidding me gpguy i thought you loved mendy (or was that just whenI was critizing him but yeah u r right now he sucks

 

In the end, injuries may well do in 3 of the guys: Mendy, Pouncey, DiCastro.
Knee injuries can be tough, and could diminish the careers of all of them. A bit of bad luck.

I wouldn't be too concerned about Jones yet, Polamalu barely played as a rookie.
Funny thing with Timmons, the OP finds him a bit of a dissapointment. But earlier this yr, there was a thread where someone was downright indignant that Timmons wasn't on some top 100 players list.
Ziggy, Cam haven't gown me much.

 

I guess I'd use the word inconsistent with Timmons and that's been the disappointment. He's been all over the board from spectacular to sucktacular and everything in between.

 

Yeah but it is still mostly Williams a frickin rookie. A rookie is calling our defense. Why was Foite here to call our defense. Why can't Timmons do it full time and solve some of the problems. There's something to it I just can't figure out what.

 

A very good point brought up JA5958, Player development seems to be lacking. Were all the players you mentioned maybe rated to high?I am not liking what I am seeing from the HC on down.

 

lets wait before we call any of them busts. I mean damn. Timmons is a solid player. you take him out of the line up and you will see how good he really is. just watch him and the things he is ask to do. not many guys like him in the league. pouncey and decastro its way to early to tell. when pouncey is hurt he sucks according to everyone but when he is in there he is a pro browler. decastro hasn't even played a half a season yet. how in the world can you even mention jones? when you dbs are 10 yards off the receiver and the qb gets rid of the ball in 2 secs, how is anyone suppose to get there? I will agree mendy was a disappointment but I think just because we let him go. he played pretty good while he was here. I will give you hood. the kid was good in college and I thought he would be a good d end for us but I am starting to wonder if he has it upstairs cause lebeaus system is hard to learn for a de and he seems to constantly be out of position

 

our coaching staff went to die when cowher left

 

Exactly.

This list is basically trying too hard to prove its own hypothesis. And that's why people are contesting whether players are busts. You can't just say "All our 1st round picks have been busts", and then expect people to discuss that without assessing the term "bust".

Was Mendy a bust? I don't think "being a head case" puts him in that category - Greg Lloyd never struck me as being particularly "all there". Mendenhall's stats were not Barry Sanders-esque, but his performance can be measured by how much we are missing a starting-calibre back this season. He's not here anymore, true. But there's a different between "not panning out" and being a "bust".

Was Decastro a bust? The man has been here for a little over one year, for most of which he was injured. I can only think of one rookie here of recent who really fitted the "plug and play" mould, and that was Ben - and he was plugged into a stripped down, simplifed offense to help him master it. Not so Decastro.

Was Jones a bist? Four games. Jeez.

 

Pretty much.

 

Please see post above your post above. The point of this post is not to call any of these players a bust, it's to discuss whether or not these players have truly lived up to their potential at this point. We don't want first rounders who are average to above average. We want first rounders who are solid, CONSISTENT, contributors and team leaders and so far you could argue that none of these players have achieved that kind of consistency and are true leaders. Again I'll ask the question. Why are we not getting more out of this FIRST ROUND TALENT? Could it be that the coaching is lacking? That's the hypothesis here. Not whether or not these guys are busts. I didn't mention the word BUST in my OP.

 

...

 

Any thoughts on Timmons?

EDIT: Never mind, I see it. Missed it because it wasn't in red, lol. And let me reiterate for the nth time, I'm not calling any of these players a bust. I'm just seeing regression in some of them and it's disconcerting, especially given the fact that I have some serious concerns with our coaching staff, from the HC on down.

 

my trouble is when we add 2nd round picks like gilbert, adams, sweed with some of these guys. with ziggy demoted we now have 2 whole drafts of non starters, I believe.

 

Oh yeah! I didn't even want to get into the second round flops.

 

maybe all the moves this year is scrambling to try to save some jobs.

 

The browns and bengals have us beat in this department. They have the most top ten busts the last twenty years. That's far worse than us.

 

Lawrence Timmons: Guy just doesn't have the mindset to be star, more content to be a role player. We clearly just drafted the best athlete and not someone who might have been a game changer. He was probably best on the board at the time, should have traded up or traded back. It is good we at least have him now though, our talent at ILB is low.

Rashard Mendenhall: Our line stinks, but he just didn't want to hit the hole. His best game was the AFC championship game against the Jets. Wish he could have played like that all the time.

Ziggy Hood: Again, probably BPA when we picked, but never thought he was a good fit for this team. Probably would thrive in a tampa-2 defense IMHO. Would have been nice to have had an early pick that year.

Maurkice Pouncey: Injury prone, never took the next step. He likes to get up field, when sometimes he should just maul guys.

Cam Heyward: I have the highest hopes for him, sometimes he flashes. It makes you wonder why it has taken so long though?

David DeCastro: Pretty good player, not dominating... not yet anyways?

Jarvis Jones: Good player, next year he should be better. I'm not sure he is the greatest fit though just because he doesn't exactly fit the mold of the guys that came before him the last 15 years.

I think the last couple years our success has hurt us in the draft. We have been a few picks away in various rounds from landing truly great players, but we don't get a sniff because we pick so late. We could use a year where we pick inside the top ten. A lot of the guys above were best available at the time, but maybe not the perfect fit for the team.

 

Remember how long the Bengals have been bad to get to be able to draft all those young playmakers they have on both offense and defense. More than anything our run of success is showing because at the end of each round you are getting good guys but not necessarily studs. For every Antonio Brown, there is a Limas Sweed. I think the one concern is that some of these picks are solid role players but are not taking that next step into typical Steeler fashion. How many years did we just let a LB go with another stepping in without missing a beat. It seems like that has not happened the past couple of years.

Kendrell Bell, Chad Brown, Clark Haggans, Kevin Greene, Kirkland etc... I think the player development is not as good as previous years. And maybe that has to do with the new CBA and the amount of time teams are allowed to have practice etc.

I have noticed teams are a lot more undisciplined and are worse in terms of tackling than I can remember in a long time.

 

Aye, fair enough, Jack - you didn't say bust, my mistake.

However, you did basically say: all of these guys are average to above average, and include on the list guys who have played a handful of games. So naturally, people are going to debate that point first before they start looking at who to blame.

Anyways... I think Hawkeye is right on a lot of counts such as the late draft spots and the CBA contributing to things. Also, that we had a pretty solid group of starters which kept guys like Heyward on the bench. You'll only learn properly on the field in the game.