Brandon Boykin

Here you go again Dean, making up your own "facts" because you don't like the way the Steelers have addressed the CB position recently. Up until last year's drafts I didn't like the way they addressed it either (Hawthorne and Richardson as the highest picked corners in back to back drafts was not wise IMO), but I'm not going to make stuff up just to make a point:

1. The notion that somehow Colbert was sitting there thinking Peters would fall to us: There's no way to know whether Peters would have been the pick even if he had fallen to pick #22. There are good reasons why he may not have done so. Peters was kicked off of his college team even though there were no issues with the law, any academic violations that other stuff that could have gotten the program in trouble. When you're the best corner on your team, and you get kicked off the team without being arrested... man, that's hard to do, and it created red flags. College coaches are under huge pressure to win, and they're not going to kick the best players off of the team without really, really good reasons. The Steelers did meet with him, which shows likely interest in his play on the field, but that meeting could have potentially sealed disinterest based on what he said. We'll never know.

2. To trade up, you have to find someone who will trade down, and then you have to pay their price. We have no idea whether Colbert tried to trade up, and what the price would have been. One thing for sure, it would have affected the rest of our draft because we wouldn't have had our full complement of picks. At minimum, we would have needed to trade our 3rd rounder to move up, and actually, per the Jimmy Johnson trade value chart that wouldn't have been enough to get to pick #17 ahead of KC. So, likely we're talking trading our #3 and #5 to move up 5 spots ahead of KC. Now, who were those picks in the 3rd and 5th? Those picks were Sammy Coates and Jessie James. Hmmm..... I wonder how we'd be looking at this year's draft without Dupree, Coates and Jessie James on the roster. Those are 3 guys that we are really counting on to step up, and we'd have glaring needs at all 3 of their positions right now. Can you imagine if we were headed into this draft with 38 yard old James Harrison as our only real starting caliber edge rusher?

3. Comparing Revis and Peters... come on, that's just silly. Revis is the best man cover corner of the past decade. Revis came into the league as a true shutdown corner who could take away the other team's best receiver in man coverage all day. Could Peters get there someday if he can avoid whatever issues led to being kicked off his college team? Maybe, but he's got a long way to go. KC did not use him the way that Revis has been used through most of his a career. They used him in off-man and zone (much like we do), and generally did not put him on an island against top receivers. I think he played fairly well, but he was nothing like Revis as a rookie. Not even close.

4. Peters was not nearly as special last year as you're making him out to be. I just read an article on PFF about 5 players who shouldn't have made the Pro Bowl. They list Peters number 1 and point out that (at the time of writing on 12/23/15) he had give up the 2nd most yards in the league (behind Blake) and had given up 7 TDs (4th worst in the NFL at that point). His PFF grade of 69.7 was worse than either Gay or Cockrell received at the end of the season. I'm certainly not saying that PFF is great at rating players, but the yardage and TD numbers are hard to refute. I think that the PFF grade was bait unfair, and give him more credit than that, but he was nowhere near a shutdown corner, that's for certain.

5. In KC, Peters had the benefit of playing opposite a #1 corner in Sean Smith. He had an All Pro free safety watching his backside in Eric Berry. He had a pass rush in front of him that had Justin Houston and Tamba Hali as edge rushers. That situation is going to really help a rookie CB succeed, and if you go back and watch his interceptions you'll see that he some nice gift interceptions courtesy of the pass rush. Some of the interceptions were very nice as well (The one vs. Minnesota was a great, heady play; the one vs. Cleveland was nice as well), but most were bad passes that should have never been attempted. It's great that he took advantage of the situations and made the plays, but many of those plays were the result of him being in the right place to take advantage of another player's blunder.

Now, I don't dislike Peters on the field. I think he played pretty well, and the way KC used him was the way he would have been used in our scheme. However, he also had a lot of minus plays for the Chiefs that get lost because they didn't make his highlight reel. No way, no how would I go back in time and trade Dupree, Coates and James for Peters. He's just not that special of a player IMO. We made the right move last year by NOT giving up the farm to get him.

 

I remember saying that i would probably take a chance on Peters but there was no way the Steelers would, not a first round pick. They took Bryant in the 4th knowing that he had issues with drug use and that bit them in the ass.

Steelers will never use a first rd pick on a prospect with character concerns. Peters was never in play.

 

I actually agree that Peters is currently better on the field than any DB on our roster, but is that really setting a high bar? He's a good player on the field, but not spectacular. Gay gave up less in terms of yards and TDs than Peters did last year, and it wasn't even close. I'd take Peters over Gay for 2016, but it's a fairly close call. I'd be nervous about Peters long term given his character questions. Again, it's real hard to be a star football player and get kicked off the team if there are no legal issues or NCAA violations, but he found a way (I seem to remember something about him assaulting an assistant coach). Will he be ok from now on? Maybe. However, character issues can, and often do, resurface. He had a solid rookie year, kudos to him. I hope he keeps on the right path.

You, on the other hand, have gone on record as saying that he's as good as Revis. Good luck proving that....

You've also said that our coach blabbed about our intent to draft Peters. Yep, I'm sure our coach regularly tells the media and 31 other teams exactly who we're after. That's exactly what happens leading into the draft. Also, on the whole about Colbert being an idiot who was played by KC is just silly. I often disagree with Colbert's moves and draft selections, but he's not an idiot that has no clue how to manage the draft. I'm sure that what we did last year was exactly what we intended to do, and wasn't the result of him being a dope and saying "OMG! The Chiefs took Coach T's boy at 18! We're doomed! How could I be bamboozled like that? Damn you Andy Reid!!!"

You haven't even addressed the issue of 1) whether they could even find a trade partner (you just assume that Colbert was negligent) or 2) the price. Tell me flat out - if the price for Peters would have been our 1st, 3rd and 5th (Dupree, Coates and James), would you make that trade?

 

With the heat that Denvers defensive front was putting on Brady and Cam, we could field a secondary full of you and we could win a SB

 

Ok, if you think I'm being ridiculous, tell me who you think would have traded down to us at #22 (we picked 22, not 21) at what price and why they do the deal.

Here are the 3 picks ahead of KC:
15. San Diego (traded up from 17 at a cost of 4th and 5th round picks)
16. Houston (took a cornerback: Kevin Johnson)
17. San Fran (traded down from 15 and received 4th and 5th round picks)

Do you think there was a good deal available to Colbert there?

 

Agree. A lot of GMs may not want to admit to using the chart, but if you look back at actual draft day trades and crunch the numbers they amazingly come out really close most of the time.

 

Add to that the uncertainty of what you're actually going to get out of that corner. There have been several recent corners who were rated very high, and drafted high, that have no paid dividends (at least not yet). Milliner, Kirkpatrick, Claiborne, Gilbert, Dennard,etc. I'm not talking about scrub prospects who were taken way higher than where they were projected, I'm talking about guys that the draft "experts" who actually played in the NFL like Mayock (a former DB) were high on. If you're going to give up extra picks to move up, you'd better be right or you could end up with that shiny hood ornament being on a tag sale table in a couple of years. I feel that strongly about Ramsey, but he'll be long gone. After him, all of the other corners have plenty of uncertainty. Who you prefer is just a question of what you prioritize in terms of strengths and avoiding certain weaknesses. Most of them rate lower than guys like Claiborne and Milliner who have not panned out.

 

We were a fumble away from being in the AFC CG last year. Without Bell, Without DWill, without AB and Ben with a bum shoulder.

As far as I am concerned, the secondary has already improved over last year and we haven't even drafted anyone yet. And I'm sure they will.

 

No Blake. No Will Allen (at least not yet). Addition by subtraction!