Worst draft year ever?

Ok, to distract us all from our sadness at the departure of Willie Gay, a bit of a history thread.

In another thread, JackAttack asked whether 2008 was our worst draft year ever.

We all know that 74 was the best, but what was the worst?

For example: 1985. We picked up Dan Turk (long time back up) and Harry Newsome (long time starter), but unless we all remember Liffort Hobley... seems like a barren year.

Or what about 1979, where we had to forefeit a round 3 pick for illegally practicing in pads (hell yeah), and drafted those mighty over-achievers Greg Hawthorne and Zack Valentine...

Or what any particularly dud years in the 50's and 60's?

What are your thoughts?

 

The worst draft in Steelers history would probably be the 1946 NFL Draft. There were only three selections. Doc Blanchard (Army Career) and Harmon Rowe (traded to the Giants) never played a down in Pittsburgh.


1 Doc Blanchard Army
3 Harmon Rowe San Francisco
18 Gail Bruce Washington

 

Thanks for starting this thread, Thigpen. This is an interesting topic and when someone mentioned the 2008 draft class in another thread it got my wheels to turning. We all would agree that the 1974 draft class was the best of all time with 4 of the top 5 picks making it to the HOF (poor Jimmy Allen). But which draft class is the worst?

I did some research and the criteria I used was very unscientific. If a draft class had at least two quality starters it was not eligible to be the worst. If it had a quality starter and at least another player or two who were good solid backups throughout their careers then it was not eligible to be on the list either.

At any rate, here is what I came up with. In my opinion, the 2008 draft class is the worst since the 1975 draft class. Even if Mendenhall rehabs his knee injury and comes back to full force I believe this draft class will still be one of the worst in Steelers history. The reason, there are no other starters or even quality backups in this group. They are all either out of the NFL or are on the way out.

Here are the top 5 worst Steelers draft classes since 1969:
1) 1975 - After hitting one homerun after another the year before, the only pick worth mentioning in 1975 is Dave Brown. Brown didn't do much with the Steelers but had an average career with the Seahawks. Bob Barber and Walter White were the 2nd and 3rd rounders that year and all the other selections are no-names.
2) 2008 - Mendenhall may never be the same after the devastating knee injury and quite honestly was a disappointment to many even before the injury. Limas Sweed could never get it together. Bruce Davis, Tony Hills and Dennis Dixon were all wasted picks.
3) 1983 - Could have been so much different but when Gabe Rivera was tragically paralyzed in an auto accident, his promising career was cut short. Wayne Capers was the 80s version of Limas Sweed, big, strong, fast but no heart. Dan Marino anyone?
4) 1985 - The only quality starter we got out of this draft was a punter, Harry Newsome. For that reason alone it's on the list.
5) 1982 - We drafted the next Franco Harris in this draft in the person of Walter Abercrombie. It didn't work out too well. The only redeeming quality in this draft is that we got Mike Merriweather in the 3rd round or this would be higher on the list.

Thigpen, you mentioned the 1979 draft where we drafted Greg "is he a RB or a WR?" Hawthorne in the 1st round and Zack Valentine later. But there were some solid players in this draft i.e. Calvin Sweeney, Dwaine Board, Dwayne Woodruff and Matt Bahr which would preclude the 1979 draft from being on the list of the worst drafts.

I look forward to hearing everyone else's thoughts on the topic. To me it became clear after researching this topic a little that the 2008 draft IS A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!

 

Ah, I knew about Sweeney and Bahr, but forgot about Woodruff. Definitely one for the later rounds, that year...

 

Why did we only have three picks? I just looked on the fountain of knowledge, wikipedia, and it says we made thirty...?

 

2006 and 2008 are the worst in recent memory, but I'm sympathetic to the first two picks on '08, Mendenhall and Sweed.


2008:

I see Sweed as a failure of several factors: coaching/playing time, bad luck with injuries, and Sweed's weird mental problem in '09. I don't think it was a bad draft pick. Like the Frank Summers pick, I think Colbert and the coaches were not on the same page. The coaches did not use what they had for his intended purpose. I could go on and on and get specific, but I've already done that so many times over the years. I don't want to fight about it.

I don't see Mendenhall as a failure at all, unlike most people around here. I think he's a great player, an impact player, and is being misused. He has jack squat to work with. Even the success that he does have seems to go entirely unnoticed by the fan base, who seemingly gave up on him after some rookie preseason fumbles. I think he was the right pick and fell into the wrong hands.

Hills was a roll of the dice that didn't work out. I wasn't nuts about it at the time, but I understood where they were coming from.

Bruce Davis was inexcusable. This is the worst pick. Horrible player, and chosen over Cliff Avril, who was not some diamond in the rough. Most of us on the board wanted Avril!


2006:

We trade up for Holmes... Great player, won us a Super Bowl, didn't jive and had to go. Shame, but a great pick. Would have been happy with Mangold too.

We trade BACK so that we can land both Anthony Smith AND Willie Reid... good Lord. I flipped over Reid. We had JUST drafted Holmes, and we spend a 3rd rounder on a punt returner?? Horrible! And here are some names taken within one round after Reid: Jahri Evans, Leon Washington, Elvis Dumervil, Domata Peko, Owen Daniels, Michael Robinson, Ray Edwards...

Colon worked out... sort of. It took him 3 years of sucking before he became good, at which point he signs a 5 year extension and misses two seasons. Will be a good pick if he can get back on the field this year. And although if you ask me his first good season was 2009, he did hold it down the stretch in 2008 when we needed him most.

Orien Harris, OMAR JACOBS! CHARLES DAVIS! Marvin Philip, Cedric Humes

 

For me it has to be 1983. If they would have selected Dan Marino instead of Gabe Rivera, just that pick alone possibly could have meant more SuperBowl Trophies.

 

Great job researching this. I have been saying it on a couple of threads that 2008 was one of the worst, but after looking it up I have to agree that 1975 was even worse. Although maybe thats what happens when you have the best draft in the history of the NFL the year before.
The other interesting thing I see is that you point out the bad drafts in 82, 83 and 85. Our worst stretch of seasons in the past 40 years was 1985-1988 where we went a collective 26 and 37. Makes a good correlation between your assessment of those drafts and the effect it had on the team. Heres to hoping 2012 does not make this list!

 

Thank you for the catch.You are correct as there were only 10 teams and 32 rounds. The best I can figure is that the other players went to the AAFC who were luring tons of players with big money.

 

At that time, probably just "not playing for Pittsburgh" would be enough to lure them away...

 

The 1990's seem to be scaping criticism here. 1996 seems to be one of the only weak years - we got Earl Holmes, and then a few players like Steve Conley who were good for one season then buggered off.

If folks are interested:
http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldr ... &type=team

 

We actually had some pretty good drafts in the 90s. The 96 draft you mentioned is not one of the worst. You mentioned Holmes who was somewhat of a disappointment overall but we also drafted Jon Witman who was a pretty good fullback, Orpheus Roye was a pretty solid 6th round pick and Carolos Emmons was a decent backup we got in the 7th round. Jamain Stephens and Steve Conley in rounds 1 and 2 were complete busts.

The 1991 draft was also relatively weak and the first 2 picks, Huey Richardson and Jeff Graham were both disappointments with Richardson being a complete bust. But we also drafted Ernie Mills, Sammy Walker, Adrian Cooper and Leroy Thompson who were all decent players. Mills was a number 2 receiver for a while and the others were capable reserves.

 

First of all, thanks for not flipping out on me for defending the pick! But I disagree about success being "the only way" to measure a good pick. I can separate success. You could draft a DE/OLB in the first round that gets 5 sacks in his first 3 NFL games, and then dies in a car accident. That's an extreme example, but the truth is that 5 career sacks from a 1st round pick is terrible output and not successful at all in the long run. It is not successful. But is it a bad draft pick? Not at all. In fact, it might have been the best one all year. I honestly believe that Sweed would have been successful if the team had been committed to him. Instead, they were the exact opposite, seemingly committed to keeping him off the field. He didn't overcome that obstacle like we'd have liked, but with only Nate "Drops McGee" Washington ahead of him on the depth chart, it's an obstacle that never should have been there and he should have had a chance to work through any problems he had. A lot of factors at play with this guy, but I don't think making the draft pick was one of them. The same can't be said for Bruce Davis and Tony Hills, who should never have been selected.

 

Point taken. Maybe a better way to phrase it would be to say "most successful drafts" which would imply that the players selected went on to have some level of success over the long term.

 

Abercrombie was a decent back. And Merriwether was, imho, one of the top 5 or 6 LBs to ever wear the B&G, so I have to disagree on that 1982 draft. However, you're dead-on with 1975, which is probably the very worst since the merger.

 

I did think twice before including this. Abercrombie was "decent" but you expect more than "decent" out of your first round pick. He played 6 yrs for the Steelers and then finished his career with the Eagles for one season. I think an injury may have cut his career short. Career stats - about 3,300 yds rushing and 22 TDS. His career rushing average was under 4 ypc (3.96).

As for Merriweather, I agree. He was an awesome LB and was one of the few bright spots of the 80s. My criteria was that to be a successful draft class we had to get at least 2 players that made a difference as either a solid starter or solid backup/reserve. I just don't think Abercrombie made much of a difference.

Out of curiosity, which draft class would you put on the list at the 5 position if not this one?

 

It's hard to put a criteria on a draft class's worth. To me, a draft is bad if it produces no future starters of 3+ years. So how many future starters, impact players, all-pros/probowlers, and HOFers a draft class produces is all part of it.

Here are my bottom five:

1. 1975: The only two players of relevance were Dave Brown and Mike Collier, both of whom started elsewhere.

2. 1985: Only punter Harry Newsome became a starter.

3. 1983: Gabe Rivera, Paul Skansi, and Greg Garrity.

4. 1997: Chad Scott and Mike Vrabel, who starred in New England.

5. 1996: Earl Holmes and Jon Whitman.


"Dis"honorable mention:

1979: Matt Bahr and Dwayne Woodruff came out of this draft. That's it.
1981: Serviceable, but not spectacular defensive starters Keith Gary, Bryan Hinkle, and David Little.

 

Now, if we're rating worst #1 picks of the post-merger era, that list becomes a little easier to create*:

1. Huey Richardson, 1991
2. Troy Edwards, 1999
3. Jamain Stephens, 1996
4. Darryl Sims, 1985
5. Dave Brown, 1975
6. Greg Hawthorne, 1979
7. Chad Scott, 1997
8. Aaron Jones, 1988
9. Tim Worley, 1989
10. Frank Lewis, 1971

* I won't put Gabe Rivera on the list.

 

Edwards worse than Stephens?

I never thought Edwards was a bad player, just not worth a 1st round pick. He'd have been a good 3rd rounder.

 

....and more than likely... Neil O'Donnel might have never worn a steelers jersey.

For that matter, we could look at the 57 draft where we got Len Dawson... but proceeded to trade him away for a song and dance eventually landing in KC for a great career.

 

Yeah, I know. Tough call. But Stephens was something like the 29th pick, and he was a projected "project." He was young and raw, and the Steelers knew they were taking a risk with him. Edwards, on the other hand, was expected to be a dynamic WR. He was a Top 15 pick, if memory serves. What really burned me over the Edwards pick was that the Steelers had an opportunity to trade up and select David Boston and failed to do so.