POLL: Post-Draft, Would You Keep Emmanuel Sanders?

If we'd let Sanders sign with New England, we'd have been given the #91 overall pick in return. Now that we know who would have been available at that time, would you have let him go and taken the pick? Or re-signed him and get him for one more year, plus a chance at a long-term contract?

For the purposes of this poll, let's assume that the Steelers would not have traded the pick (say, to move up in the 2nd and draft Manti Te'o or something, or trade back and pick up more picks later). And no saying you'd have drafted Shamarko Thomas and kept next year's 3rd. The options are take one of these guys, or keep Sanders like we did.

Here are the players taken between #91 and our next pick, #111:

Duron Harmon, S, Rutgers
Stedman Bailey, WR, West Virginia
Will Davis, CB, Utah State
Brandon Williams, DT, Missouri Southern State
Sam Montgomery, DE, LSU
Knile Davis, RB, Arkansas
Zavier Gooden, OLB, Missouri
Matt Barkley, QB, USC
Nico Johnson, ILB, Alabama
Akeem Spence, DT, Illinois
Ace Sanders, WR, South Carolina
Josh Boyce, WR, TCU
Alex Okafor, DE, Texas
Jelani Jenkins, OLB, Florida
Duke Williams, S, Nevada
Dion Sims, TE, Michigan State
Brian Schwenke, C, California
Edmond Kugbila, OG, Valdosta State
David Bakhtiari, OT, Colorodo
Ryan Nassib, QB, Syracuse

If your choice is to let Sanders walk, which of these guys would you have drafted with the pick?

 

i like sanders. i hope they keep him long term and the fine young crop they drafted. that being said, i first said take the pick, because i don't like the fact it was for one year but it would have been anyway.

i liked josh boyce and thought we may pick him, but not in the 3rd so i wouldn't even consider that. none of those guys stick out as great 3rd rounders. maybe baily.

 

I voted the pick he is gone after this year and no way is he going to get a deal that would give us a 3rd round pick. I like Sanders but I just don't see him coming back. I honestly could see Wheaton challenging him this year. We have been a passing team since he showed up and still hasn't had more then 44 catches in a year. I promise you that if a deal isn't in place by camp he will be gone. I thought matching was very stupid from the time they did it.

 

sanders may well be gone after the year but it will be nice not having to rely on a rookie receiver to start, especially with heath out to start the year. 44 catches as the 3rd and 4th option while missing time with injuries is pretty decent. i'm more concerned with his durability than his ability or contract offers.

 

Manny is a good wr, that is a disciplined route runner and can get SEPERATION,
He really needs to be able to stay on the field though,maybe his foot problems and other things
are behind him? Voted yes. I will match NE.

 

I'm sorry I just don't see him being as good as some make him out to be. He wasn't the 4th option last year he was the 3rd and for awhile the 2nd when brown was hurt. So when you consider he started 3 games last year 44 catches is not great at all. He drops balls and fumbled when nobody was around him. I think us Steelers fans way over value some players and I believe he is one of those players.

 

sanders has played in 40 games. 94 receptions for 1290 yds and 5 TD's. 13.7 yards per catch.

brown has played in 38 games. 151 receptions for 2002 yds and 7 TD's. 13.7 yards per catch.

not a big difference and brown was a starter last year. brown has dropped and fumbled balls too. he got a big contract. the scoring is where they both need to pick it up.

sanders is every bit as good as brown. the foot problems have been addressed. no reason he shouldn't surpass brown this year finally starting. i think they are going to be a good combo.

let's now bring wheaton into the mix. i think antonio may make a better slot receiver and wheaton and sanders as the outside receivers down the line. i'd like to keep this bunch together and filter in justin brown and woods at some point in the near future.

it is the offenses turn to pick first next year in the draft, so with talent in place, the steelers are going to wait and see how it plays out. do they draft a #1? sign sanders? have j.brown, wheaton and a. brown as the starters next year?

i think it's a wait and see like they did with lewis. what we pay sanders this year isn't alot for a starter, and if he leaves, we will get some compensation for him in a draft pick anyway.

 

which option sanders was depends on where you slide heath in also. i just think an established player with some rapport with ben is a better option than throwing a rookie in at #2. more options, more depth, more time to develop, better chance at making a heavy playoff run. losing two of your top 3 receivers in the same year is just bad business. wheaton was drafted in the same round as sanders, there's nothing saying he turns out the same or worse. worst case scenario is wheaton is another sweed and you've already let sanders go leaving yourself very thin. this way you have some insurance for at least this year and know what your plan needs to be for the future. if wheaton pans out i could see letting sanders walk (possibly without an offer) and drafting another receiver in the first or second round.

 

Wrs are a dime a dozen. When has a team brought in a huge named wr and won the super bowl? The Steelers won with Ward, ARE, and Wilson. With the holes this team has it was smarter to get the pick and save the cap space on a rental and that is what*Sanders is at this point. Wrs don't drive an offense and are easily replaced.

 

who's saying bring in a huge name? ward,are and cedric did not win a SB. we had wallace, holmes,nate washington,brown,sanders to go along during those times, so it's not like we won it with those 3. hines ward is also a future HOF'er. so it's not like we had average joe's running around. ARE got replaced by sanders. cedric was more of a cotchery, but cotchery is far better. good receivers are far from a dime a dozen.

 

I think you are undervaluing the whole position. Yes, sometimes an offense can work without great wide receivers if you have all the other positions in place, but it's not as "dime a dozen" as running backs. They sure as hell aren't just easily replaced. Ward is a Hall of Famer. Randle El was a great player in his prime back then. We had Heath, an amazing OL and a good running game. In 2008 we still had Ward and Heath, and also a guy named Santonio Holmes, without whom we might not even reach the Super Bowl, and we might not win it. Which reminds me, in 50% of the Steelers' Super Bowl wins, including the most recent two, a WR was named MVP.

Sanders had a couple bonehead plays last year, but so did Brown and Wallace. All of our WRs had a bad season last year. He might never be a great #1, but when he's healthy, he's a good weapon to have. I love the Wheaton pick, but it usually takes more than a year or two for a WR to become strong in an offense (plus he's at a disadvantage, missing everything so far). And even if he does step up right away, the coaches won't want to play him any more than they can help it.

Personally, I still don't know how I feel about keeping him, because I don't know yet if we'll keep him long-term. I think he might be in the same boat as Worilds. Either he has more injuries and we won't want him, or he'll perform so well we can't afford him. But even so, I'm very happy he's here, just like I am with Worilds. Even with Wheaton, and even with Jarvis.

 

Wrong mike Wallace wasn't on the Steelers in 08 nor was Sanders or Brown. Holmes didn't deserve the MVP Ben did. Everyone forgets Holmes dropped the same exact pass on the other side of the endzone the play before the catch. Also to call ARE great is a great stretch. We won with ward, Are and Washington then ward Holmes and Wilson. Other then ward none of those are more then serviceable wrs. Holmes looked like he was going to be great but fell off when he went to the jets.

 

first off, i'm glad we kept sanders and hope he can be extended..... if we lose him after the season, we still would have a good comp. pick to look forward to if he's successful elsewhere.....

that said, there were some intriguing options in this draft which huge placed on the initial post... first of course would have to be Stedman bailey.. his numbers can't really be denied, but sanders is still a better route runner, and still slightly faster. time will tell if bailey was just a product of the system or not.

knile davis......... his skill set is earily similar to Adrian Peterson's, but he is also too injury prone to carry the load full time....... it would put us right back where we were last season...

zavier gooden........ this kid is scary fast with legitimate cb speed, and while I know I sound like al davis right about now, it's hard to look away from his 40 time considering the position he plays... ultimately, I think he would be bumped inside in our defense...... paired with Timmons, the possibilities would be endless

dion sims......... poor man's eric greene.... his size alone would be a match-up nightmare (especially in the red zone)

all in all though, I think the f.o. made the right descision matching the pat's offer....... there's always going to be questions about what wasn't done, and what was left out there....... keeping sanders ensures that the wr position remains a strength........... tough descisions were made, and I am mainly happy with them.

 

Holy hell, man. Holmes wasn't the best player out of the 44 starters that day? That's your case? Randle El was a great all around player, and yes, before he went to the Redskins, he was a great receiver. Holmes fell off with the Jets? WHO CARES? He was great for us, in case you didn't notice. He dropped a touchdown before scoring a touchdown on the next play? Uh, I'm no expert, but isn't that the only way in the universe to erase the damage caused by a dropped touchdown?

By the way, since you're being so picky about who we had when, you might want to check your own lists.

Also, I think mac was including the 2010 year, when we lost the Super Bowl (through no fault of our WRs).

Lastly, to tie your point in this post to your point in your previous posts, Holmes, Brown, Sanders, and Wallace are NOT receivers you can just find anywhere. They are not a dime a dozen. Just because they aren't Hall of Famers or the best in the league doesn't mean you can pick them up anywhere. WR is a position where you need good players. It's not long snapper, where all you have to be is a little better than horrible. Better receivers means a better passing game. How am I having this conversation?

 

I finally voted. To keep Sanders. If I could have total control over the pick I might take it, and trade up in the 2nd or trade back into the 4th, but I figure the chances the Steelers would do that instead of just drafting a guy is around 20%. And out of the guys available, I just don't want any of them that bad. Bailey's my favorite, but we just took Wheaton a few picks earlier. Another thing I might do is draft Shamarko Thomas and then not make that trade, or draft Thomas, make the trade and draft Barrett Jones, or just draft someone besides Landry Jones, but at this point I'm changing the whole draft, and that's not fair. So I keep Sanders.

I think it worked out well. If some fan favorite had gone right at #91 or #92, we'd all be pulling our hair out.

 

Randle els best year with the Steelers he had 601 yards receiving sorry but that is easily replaced you are forgetting the key guy here and that's Big Ben. Look at the patriots other then Welker it's nothing but serviceable wrs. Now that Welker is gone we will se how Danny a does. Wallace had one thing given it was a great thing bit he is replacable. So far yinz are making my point for me we have gone to the super bowl with Ward, Washington, Wilson, Holmes, Brown, Sanders, Wallace, ARE, and hell even Sweed got a ring. Qbs can make any wr look great rarely does a wr make a qb look great. Do you think if anybody other then Brady was throwing Welker the ball his stats would be as good as they are chances are no. We have had a huge turnover at wr thrkough the years yet we keep winning you can't tell me we have hit on every wr other then Sweed. Also systems make wrs look good as well wrs are easily replaced.

 

Don't forget - Jerry Rice had Joe Montana, then Steve Young, then a red-hot Rich Gannon. When he moved on to having an average quarterback, he was forced to retire. He was garbage without good QBs. I've said it a million times: drafting a WR before the 7th round is a total waste.

 

Exactly very few wrs come to mind that made qbs look great. Wrs are completely replaceable.

 

who was it that made those catches last year to make flacco look good? those were perfectly thrown jump balls i guess. i remember a couple of receivers that made terry bradshaw look pretty good too, but i guess that was all terry. mark duper and mark clayton made one dan marino look pretty good too.

it's not just the qb's, it is a team game. a bunch of superstars usually have problems playing together. when you can get that mix of youth and talent surrounding your franchise qb, that has history with him, you go with it. he at least gets a chance to start and show what he has before we cast him off as a dime a dozen.

remember ARE was also a qb and a punt returner for us. back in the SB WIN days , he used all those skills for us.

 

So far you've named most of the guys I was thinking of. Moss is another love him or hate him TO did. Ward did as well with the tough catches as well but for every one of those guys there's 15 of the replacable ones. Emmanuel Sanders is not one of those guys and honestly I don't think we have any irreplaceable wrs right now.

 

Hell, QBs are a dime a dozen. El wasn't even the starting QB and he had a crazy high completion percentage. For that matter, linemen are a dime a dozen. We have been winning without a decent line for ages. Which only proves, that linebackers, defensive backs and everyone else but the defensive end are dime a dozen. Yes, only the defensive end, the left defensive end to be exact, is irreplaceable. Without that guy the whole team would collapse. Oh, and the ball boy, hard to find a good one of those too.

 

I saw people corrected you on Wallace for '08, but Ward, ARE, and Cedric were there in '05.

 

I voted to match the Pats offer; I suspect he will be gone after this year. I'm hoping they keep 5 recievers on the final 53 and at least 1 on the practice squad.

I know it's little early to tell yet, but who do you think the final recievers will be?