Shedding some light

I posted this in another thread, but thought it was interesting and wanted to share.

I've heard this argument a few times. So, I was curios to see if any validity existed to support this point of view. In my opinion this argument is inaccurate. Below I'll detail the info that has lead me to this conclusion. First, I think most can agree that in most instances franchise quarterbacks are predominantly found in the first rd. Banking on a later draft pick to be the face of your franchise and lead you to the promise land is not a logical move. given this criteria I looked at all first rd. picks from 92 (when Cowher took over) and 2004 ( when Ben was drafted) to determine who was available as it relates to our draft position. Any QB that was available at the Steeler's pick or after in Rd 1 and a few who we're near the top of Rd 2, I'll Bold the name.

the layout will be Year--Steeler's draft position--players in rd 1-

1992-Steeler Pick 15—David Klingler/Tommy Maddox
1993-Steeler pick 23—Drew Bledsoe/Rick Mirer
1994-Steeler pick 17—Heath Shuler/Trent Dilfer
1995-Steeler Pick 27—Steve McNair/Kerry Collins
1996-Steeler Pick 29—No QB drafted in the first round (Tony Banks Rd 2)
1997-Steeler Pick 24—Jim Druckenmiller (Jake Plummer Rd2)
1998-Steeler Pick 26—Peyton Manning/Ryan Leaf
1999-Steeler Pick 13—Tim Couch/Donavan McNabb/Akili Smith/Daunte Culpepper (Culpepper went 11th)
2000-Steeler Pick 8 —Chad Pennington
2001-Steeler Pick 19—Mike Vick/(Drew Brees Rd2 Pick 32) At the time, would have been a pretty big reach at 19.
2002-Steeler Pick 30—David Carr/Joey Harrington
2003-Steeler Pick 16—Carson Palmer/Byron Leftwich/Kyle Boller/Rex Grossman (We took Troy here...seriously better pick than Palmer at 1.)

As you can see the only legitimate choice would have been Brees...but it's not as though we would have had the Brees of today. I personally liked Brees coming out, but only if we could've snagged him in Rd 2.

So, in conclusion—I don't feel Cowher had much option, given our draft position and available talent. Getting a franchise QB is part scouting talent and part luck that your down season coincides with a good QB draft. I obviously didn't account for potential trades as there is no way to tell if we could move up in a given year.

 

I am having deja vu all over again.

 

Oh. So now I can also dodge bullets in highly stylized fashion? Sweet!

 

Would've taken to much to move up to get McNair. But agree that Cowher's philosophy was to use game managers. and I also recall hearing that Rooney made the Ben pick. This exercise was to show how few franchise QB's come along. And not taking a good QB is often a case of...there are none when you draft.

 

What it would have taken for Cowher to get a franchise qb in those early years would have been to sell the farm and package some picks, or break the bank in free agency and he did neither. He didn't want the run game and defense to suffer.

The question is should he have done something further than just selecting where the Steelers were slotted in the draft?

I don't know what he could have done really. Besides the famed 83 class there was a good stretch of weak qb's in the draft except for a handful. he probably would have been better off going the FA route. Not sure who would have been available to him?

 

It should also be noted that Brees is not the same QB outside in the elements as he is in a dome. It's possible that he would have never been as highly thought of playing 11 games a year in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Baltimore as he is now, or even as he was at the end of his run in San Diego.

 

I agree with not ruining the run game/defense comment. I think the only legitimate shot at getting a top QB in the first round via moving up would have been Culpepper. But he wasn't a sure shot and was kind of a shocker when he did get picked. Likely a bad move, given that Randy Moss kinda made his career.

 

If we had, he may still be alive. Nashville was not very good to him. I don't know though, I believe we all have an appointed time but we can hasten that based on our decisions and associations. Sorry for the morbidity but just a thought.

 

The problem with the OPs list is that it's done entirely with hindsight. About half of those QBs were touted at the time as bona fide potential franchise prospects. Otherwise they wouldn't have gone so high. (On Madden 2003, Tim Counch was one of the best QBs in the game... just as an example).

So I'm not sure I really understand the point of this.

As Blast said, Cowher wanted game managers. The QB was not a position he invested in. Hence, "imagine what Cowher would have done with a star QB" doesn't make sense, because his success was based precisely on investing in other positions.

 

here it is

Gibson43

 

Yeah McNair was my fave of those guys.

 

I hereby claim this thread as MINE.

 

I see a lot of qb's that I would have taken a chance on there. Bledsoe, mcnair, dilfer, manning, carr and palmer. we could have won with most of these guys. carr is a stretch but I think he was ruined by the Texans early on with the pounding he took. the guy became gun shy on every snap because he was beat so badly. if he started just about anywhere else, I think he would have been much better. palmer was much better before KVO. I'm not sure he was ever the same again after that.