Productive Steelers drafts after the early to mid '70s.

As I'm going through reading Tales From the Pittsburgh Steelers Sidelines by Dale Grdnic, I came across two draft years after the great early to mid '70s drafts in which the Steelers had very solid drafts.

In 1977, the Steelers drafted Robin Cole, Sydney Thornton, Jimmy Smith, Ted Petersen, Cliff Stoudt, Steve Courson, and Dirt Winston and would sign Tony Dungy as a free agent. No superstars but that was a solid draft as they all contributed in future years and to two more Super Bowls.

The 1987 draft the Steelers picked Rod Woodson, Delton Hall, Thomas Everett, Hardy Nickerson, Tim Johnson, Greg Lloyd, and Merril Hoge.

Everybody talks about the 1974 draft as being the best ever and it certainly was, and the 1969, '70, '71 and '72 drafts in which we built the foundation of a dynasty and drafted future Hall of Famers, but the '77 and '87 drafts were very productive and don't get mentioned enough.

 

Rarely do teams ever have complete drafts and the immediate grading of them most of the time are very laughable in the long run. Usually teams only hit on 2 or 3 players per draft year but depending on those players it could be considered a decent draft. The days of finding diamonds in the rough are long gone as there is too much information out there on everyone. In 2004, the Steelers selected Ben Roethlisberger in the 1st round and Max Starks in the 3rd round and I'd consider that a successful draft even though every other player selected that year was a complete dud.

Back in the day scouts could hold their information and privately keep secrets to themselves and their organization but now all information on players is everywhere on the internet.

 

In '03... Steelers hit on 2 of only 5 picks, Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor.

1998 was a good draft, too. Alan Faneca, Hines Ward, Deshea Townsend and Chris FU

 

Wow I had forgotten how good the ‘87 draft was. That set the stage for some very good years.

 

loved "Decken" Delton Hall!!! he would lower the boom!!!

 

2017 looking solid - Watt the beast, JuJu is a good player, Sutton and Conner will be playing on other teams due to cap reasons but are both good players as well. Quality players selected

2014 saw us take Shazier, Tuitt and Martavis Bryant. Careers too short for Shazier and Bryant (for completely different reasons of course). But to get 3 very good players in the top 4 rounds (Shazier was a star too) feels like a good draft to me.

2010 was Pouncey, Jason Worilds, Emmanuel Sanders, and AB. Another really good one.

2007 Timmons, Woodley, Spaeth, and Willie Gay - Timmons was excellent, as was Woodley for a good amount of time. Willie Gay is one of my favorite Steelers that wasn't a star player.

2002 - Kendall Simmons, Antwaan Randle El, Larry Foote, Verron Haynes, Brett Keisel - No stars, but a good starting G, Excellent slot and return man, starting ILB, quality back up RB and 3rd down RB, and starting DE. Well done here.

2023's draft has a shot to be great. Its way too early to tell but the first 5 guys taken have a real shot to be game changers for us.

 

It was "Beltin" Delton Hall, but yeah, he brought great physicality to the position. He wasn't a great cover guy, but he was a decent starter for a while. That was certainly a hell of a draft, with one Hall of Famer and seven guys who eventually started. I hated that they let Nickerson and Johnson get away.

 

Wow. I forgot how good 2007 was.

 

A 94

But I’m talking Chianti