We need to take more chances late in the draft

I understand we are historically a conservative team, especially when it comes to drafting players that have behaviour issues. This obviously has worked for us as we have 6 SB rings. With that said, just because something has historically paid off doesn't necessarily mean it's the best way of doing things. There needs to be a balance of judging the risk vs the reward.

We could have had Burfict in the 7th round. In fact, we probably could have signed him as an UDFA, or at least been in the mix with the Bengals. Yes, he had behaviour issues, although they were mostly on field as opposed to off the field. The talent was always there though and he plays with an edge that we are missing right now. We should have tried to get him, and if he didn't pan out, we are only out a 7th rounder, or a tiny bit of cash if we had signed him as an UDFA. By the looks of it, it would have panned out for us.

Then there's a guy like Bryce Brown. The guy has always had an insane amount of raw talent, but had some personal issues that made him miss most of his college years. Regardless, the insane amount of raw talent he had was obvious, which is why he was drafted despite not really playing much college football. He's a guy that could have been drafted with a late round pick, spent 1-2 years developing his skills and he likely could have stepped right in and played at a high level. I think this kid is going to be a stud in the NFL one day and I really wish we had him.

Now I'm all for playing it safe with 1st, 2nd and even 3rd round picks, but when we're talking about 5th, 6th and 7th round picks, I think we need to be more aggressive. Go for the upside, even if there's more risk.

Anyway, just thinking out loud. I don't expect anything to change. For better or worse, we're a stubborn franchise.

 

Seriously? They took a risk with Chris Rainey and Almeda Ta'Amu last year and it bit them in the ass.

Not saying you're wrong, I think sometimes you do have to take a risk, but to say they're not is kind of crazy with what we've had lately. In fact, last year's draft I'd say the Steelers actually hit well at the end of the draft. Paulson and Beachem were steals. Beachum was almost Mr. Irrelevant and looks like he may be a starter this season.

 

Rainey doesn't have 1/10th the talent of Bryce Brown. I would argue it wasn't much of a risk taking him or Ta'amu either as they had one incident, not an ongoing list of incidents. If we ruled out players that had one incident, that would be half the draft. Football doesn't attract the brightest people in many cases. I don't think Ta'amu or Rainey were much of a risk, even though they didn't pan out

 

Bryce Brown can't hold on to the football. I think that's always been a knock on him at every level. I do think he could be good if he could do that but down here in Knoxville I know people that would kneecap him if they got the chance.

 

You're right, he's got a case of the fumbles, but again, he's a guy that has barely played since high school. He doesn't have the fundamentals down, but he has more raw talent than many starters in the league, he just has to learn how to properly play the position. Develop him slowly and properly, which I believe the Eagles will do, and he's going to turn into a beast. No reason we shouldn't have considered a guy like that, especially considering we knew Mendenhall was a free agent at the end of this past season and Dwyer and Redman are both back up quality RB's. We needed an explosive RB and he was a guy that could have been taken very late in the draft, but it doesn't appear we ever considered him, likely due to his personal issues.

I guess this is more of a rant. We could have had those two guys late in the draft, or as an UDFA in the case of Burfict, and we didn't. I wanted both those guys before the draft too

 

i think we have hit pretty well on udfa's. we can't get them all. legursky,foster,harrison,mclendon,clay,redman,will johnson, butler,golden,robinson, saunders for a season. rd.7, beachum,batch,kiesel. rd. 6. AB,dwyer. not a bad bunch, but they can't all work out.

we had a pretty nice stable going into camp of rb's it seemed. batch,mendy,redman,dwyer,clay,rainey. so i don't think they were looking to hard last year. my what a difference a year can make though.

you will see plenty of udfa's in here this year, i'll almost guarantee you of that. backup rb's, linemen,lb's,safeties,corners,wr's,te's,maybe a qb,K,LS,and maybe dl. they have no money.

 

Well it'd be hard to develop him as a Steeler because if he fumbled under Tomlin it might be another week before we see him again. LOL.