Did the Steelers Get the Draft Backwards?

I'm a little late in posting this, but it's still worth a mention. The blog Behind the Steel Curtain asks an interesting question about Pittsburgh's draft: Did the team get it backwards? Specifically:

In 2006, the NFL Draft was positively loaded with linebacker prospects. A.J. Hawk, Ernie Sims, Chad Greenway, Bobby Carpenter, DeMeco Ryans, Rocky McIntosh, and Thomas Howard were all elite first- and second-round prospects. You could argue that Lawrence Timmons would have been drafted behind all of those players.

Think, then, about the wide receiving prospects in the 2006 draft. The Steelers actually traded up to draft Santonio Holmes, and while I actually like Holmes quite a bit, the Ohio State product arguably would have been the sixth best prospect in the 2007 NFL Draft - behind Johnson, Bowe, Meachem, Gonzalez, and Rice.

Your rankings may vary, but the point's the same: Pittsburgh might have -- on paper, anyway -- been better off taking a linebacker in 2006 and a wideout last month.

Now this assumes that whichever wide receiver they drafted in 2007 would be at least as productive as Holmes was last season. Honestly, I don't think it'll happen with any of these first-round picks. Which kinda blows up the argument ... unless you think Timmons will be a considerable downgrade from Hawk, Sims, et al cited above. Again, that's a tricky call -- Hawk, Sims and Ryans had kick-ass rookie seasons, but Greenway, Carpenter and McIntosh are all still big question marks.

Pittsburgh obviously took a risk trading up for Holmes, but I think he proved he was worth it. If they had drafted a linebacker last year near the bottom of the first round, Ryans, D'Qwell Jackson, McIntosh and Howard would've all been available. I'm not sure I'd be willing to trade Holmes for any of these players and take a chance that the 2007 receiver class would land a decent replacement. Still, it's something to think about.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-14-2007 @ 3:51PM

Jared Grazulis said...

OR ... It's genius because back to back years they got the top player at the position they needed.

5-14-2007 @ 4:42PM

BadMa'afala said...

Stillers.com ran an article that said the same thing about a months before the draft. The argument there was that if a position in a draft is loaded (like LB last year and WR this year), picks there will give good value. A perfect example is McFadden, who was drafted #62 in a CB heavy year, and Colclough, drafted #38 the year before. I don't think anyone would say Colclough is better, despite being a year older. It doesn't always happen that way, just most of the time.

5-14-2007 @ 6:22PM

Kevin said...

5-14-2007 @ 6:56PM

Ilanin said...

Holmes behind Gonzalez? Ohio State certainly didn't think so....

5-18-2007 @ 10:00AM

Charles said...

If you want to blame someone for it......blame Cowher. If he's still there, Joey Porter is still at OLB and Lawrence Timmons probably isn't a Steeler. A coaching change can shift your direction, even in a stable organization.

You are certainly right about that. We didn't need a LB at the time because Porter was there and we did a great job at getting Big Ben some big options (despite his down year) to throw to at WR other than Hines Ward and Heath Miller.

5-24-2007 @ 9:50AM

ed said...

watching holmes run for a touchdown in overtime against the bengals, elininating them from the playoffs makes me want him above any other player mentioned in this story...except maybe calvin johnson

6-06-2007 @ 9:52AM

Steelfanyeah said...

i know its a little late to be dwelling on this now, but the draft in my opinion was quite pointless, even without porter, you had a guy in James Harrison who has proven himself time after time. Two linebackers as the first two picks just seems ridiculous to me, the linebackers werent that big of a problem last year, and havnt been for over a century, so why change it.
Barlow was a good addition to the running backs, because he is a downhill runner, and i believe pittsburg should stick to the guys who run others over.