Quiet Steelers set to make noise in draft

Quiet Steelers set to make noise in draft

My favorite line in this ESPN article:
The Steelers find players in April, not March.

 

The article makes a good point that this could be the most important draft of Tomlin's career... This draft could really shape whether or not we go into a "rebuilding" mode.

If we can get a good OL (or two) and maybe a project NT that'd be ready in a year or two, I don't think we miss a beat.

 

Good article, and it's all true, but the title is very misleading.

The only point of the article is that the Steelers draft well, particularly in the first round, and so their entire team (except Clark) is draft picks that we made ourselves, and so they don't make noise in free agency. He doesn't predict we'll have a "noisy" draft day at all, which is what I thought it would be about. He just says we'll probably do a good job.

But in my opinion, the Steelers are as quiet on draft day as they are in free agency. We rarely ever trade, it's even more rare that we trade up. We almost never take players that even project as starters for us. We never take a player that was a media hero/villan (Tim Tebow, Maurice Clarett). No one ever talks about the drafts they have by choice -- New England and Baltimore are the media's favorites when it comes to drafting -- Christ, when we drafted Pouncey, ESPN spent most of their designated Steeler time talking about Tim Tebow. And when they have to talk about it, like when a magazine is covering every team's draft, they always say the same thing: "Hmm, not a lot of excitement here, most of these guys won't start right away but instead be backups for a year or two and then replace the solid veteran, but the Steelers always draft like that and it always works because they're so good at it." And then they give us a C+ anyway and the Ravens get an A+ for landing Sergio Kindle with their first pick. Most of the time we are wallflowers on draft day.

 

You're exactly right man. The guy writes this article praising the steelers for gettIng it right most of the time.
Then after the draft when he gives out grades we'll get a c and the rest of the afc north will get a's or a pluses.

 

Went back and looked at a couple of last year's mocks from other sights. Heyward going 18 to 21. Gilbert going 45-63 (one had us taking him in the second). Curtis Brown mid 2nd to mid-3rd. And Allen was considered one of the top sleepers of the draft. Yet they are given a grade of c or b-.

 

I never worry about grades or weekly rankings. Give me a game win over the "A" Grade or #1 power ranking any day

 

I do give some writers credit as some admit when it comes to the Steelers picks, first year grades are meaningless. Some acknowledge that we often draft guys to sit behind the veterans and learn. The smart writers usually say draft day grades for the Steelers almost always improve relative to other teams three years or so down the road. It seems to be the way when you usually are picking in the bottom quarter of each round.

 

If you keep reading the comments things get, umm..... interesting.

 

I was about to post pretty much the same thing about the draft grades. It's all a bit of fun, of course, but I do wish the analysts would notice that plugging gaps on an otherwise decent roster, rather than trading up for an over-hyped player who everybody's sure will do brilliantly (Tim Couch? Todd Marinovich? Andrew Luck...?), is not a 'below average' draft.

 

Well said. The only power ranking that counts is the last one of the year.

 

but we also get guys that we know will see some action in year 1 and soon to be starters. ben, troy, casey,heyward, holmes,pouncey, even woodley though he's a 2nd rounder. they were pretty exciting picks. these guys showed up during they rookie years and the play increased during their first year and they also ushered out the vet quicker then they thought. i hope this year is no different.