More Pain Re: The 08 Draft

"In '08, cornerback Brandon Flowers, wide receivers Jordy Nelson and DeSean Jackson, and defensive end Calais Campbell were available when Pittsburgh took Mendenhall. And running backs Ray Rice and Jamaal Charles were on the board when Sweed went in Round 2. There's more: tight end Jermichael Finley, defensive end Cliff Avril, linebacker Philip Wheeler, and safeties Thomas DeCoud and Tyvon Branch could've been had in the third round instead of linebacker Bruce Davis."

I know hindsight is 20/20, but.. Jordy, Rice and Avril instead of Mendy, Sweed and Davis...wow!

 

i remember than mendy and sweed were high ranked so is not only our mistake , but when they picked davis instead of avril i was throwing everything around for half an hour , and that mistake made us years later took worilds instead of lee since we still nedeed a pass rusher

 

I would have loved Sean Lee. That guy is a beast.

 

that is funny but i remember everyone saying we hit homeruns with limas and mendy. i bet you could do that with every team

 

I also remember on the old board that most of us (myself included) were ecstatic with this draft, calling tomlin and Colbert geniuses...most of the so called experts were praising our draft too........... let's face it. the draft is an inexact science and always will be...... can't cry over spilled milk

 

yeah instead avril and lee we had davis & worilds

 

I just want to know if both those guys dropped in the draft because other teams knew something we didn't?

Were Steelers even remotely thinking those guys would be available, and if not... did they do their due diligence scouting them just in case? Or, were they so happily surprised they were there they took them regardless. I don't think either met or interviewed with the Steelers before the draft.

Going into the daft I was really hoping we were going to draft Ray Rice. He is one of those guys, like Hines Ward, who you know would go around the 3rd round, but would be a solid vet for years to come and out play his draft position.

As far as Bruce Davis goes, wasn't his dad a friend of one of our position coaches at that time if I remember right? It makes you wonder if they did someone a favor. It never seemed like a good pick.

 

Yeah I didn't like the pick of Mendy but I was really interested in seeing what Sweed was gonna do. Oh if we had only known. LOL.

 

Mendenhall was considered a very explosive playmaker, especially in the passing game. For some stupid reason, we have refused to use our RB's in the passing game. All the top teams in the league use their RB's heavily in the passing game, but we refuse to. Mendenhall wasn't a good fit for us because all we did is line him up and run him straight into the pile. That's not his strength. We need to start using our RB's in the passing game more if we want to succeed offensively. I know Ben loves to throw deep, but he needs to realize how effective it is to toss it to the RB. We basically wasted a 1st round pick on a back that is known for his receiving skills because we never threw it to him.

 

If the 74 draft was the best draft in the history of the franchise, can we say that the 08 draft was the worst?

 

Sean Lee was drafted in 2010

 

Makes no difference to me when he was drafted, I'm just saying I would love to have him. The guy is such a great playmaker. He's got a nose for the ball.

 

3 years and 134 tackles, that guy has hall of fame written all over him

 

Where did I say he was destined to be in the hall of fame?
He wasn't a starter his rookie season and he missed most of last season, so yeah, his stats are a little low. But if you determine a players ability by simply looking at one stat, then you're missing a big chunk of the game of football.

 

Mendy had good production for a few years, he was a disappointment, not a bust. Sweed had all the physical tools but no mental toughness. Bruce Davis was the real head scratcher of the group. The Steelers organization doesn't usually miss that badly with premium picks. He was chosen at least three rounds too early. Every organization has examples like these but the Steelers can't afford that this year. Despite these disappointing examples I trust the organization and look forward to April 25-27. GO STEELERS!

 

This is the definition of "hindsight is 20/20". You could do this with any draft if you simply pick out good players from other teams and look at who we picked right before them. You could do it with any other team, too. But it doesn't work. At the time of the draft, Flowers, Nelson, and Jackson had no business going at #23 overall. Any one of those guys would have been considered a reach, whereas Mendenhall was considered a steal. No team would have taken those guys that early, and no team did. Rice and Charles in round 2 are more appropriate value, but considering we'd just taken Mendenhall those picks would have been silly. Davis is the horrible pick of the bunch. He shouldn't have been taken at all, let alone with Cliff Avril on the board. That's not hindsight, because we all knew that the minute they picked him.

I don't feel like going into the "Why Mendenhall was a good player for us and many fans are too ignorant to understand that" thing, because I've done that a lot of times already. But I think people should acknowledge that there's a difference between a bad draft pick and a pick that just didn't work out, for reasons unknowable at the time of the pick. For example, if Andrew Luck gets into a car accident and dies tomorrow, I wouldn't call him a bust, even though football-wise he definitely would be. Mendenhall's career here could have and should have been much better, had things around him been better. Unforseeable setbacks and mismanagement by the team. He had some injuries, and was basically in a flat out bad situation when it came to his offense. He was set up to fail, not succeed, and I think he did a great job considering what he had to work with. As far as I'm concerned the only thing not to like about him is whatever went on behind closed doors to get the head coach to dislike him, but there were no character concerns at all at the time of the draft. Sweed is another one that was a good pick, but unforseeable setbacks and mismanagement by the team did him in. Bruce Davis, on the other hand, was just a bad pick because he was just a bad player, and that's all there is to it. Tony Hills too, although I get what they were trying to do by snapping up a guy who's stock had been much higher before an injury, Dennis Dixon style.

Sweed and Davis should be all you need to see the difference. One was a good player whose career never got off the ground for several reasons, some of which were his coaches' fault, some of which were nobody's fault, and some of which were his fault but impossible to predict. The other was not a good player.

 

and we also cut some bum named unitas!!!!!!!!!

 

Well said!

 

Dunno, 1996 was pretty bad. 2008 certainly wasn't one of the best. However I think, whatever this board's perception, it's difficult to call Mendenhall a "bust" - when he was healthy he put up good numbers, depsite being utilised badly.

 

a nice read http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/e...-face-most-important-draft-of-mike-tomlin-era

 

and len dawson. lets not forget we also cut al bundy of married with children fame. he was a LB.

 

Our scouts most not have known about his TD's at Polk High

I think he was in camp with Lambert and all them....