Combine Thoughts

Sorry this is a little late, but it's been a crazy month.

What's that you say? It's March already? Crap.

Besides, I have been e-mailing and calling my brother with my thoughts to this point, so I figured I was okay.

Without further ado...

Defensive Ends:

It's a pretty weak class overall and it's even worse for 3-4 defensive ends. Add to that the fact that more teams are playing the 3-4 as their base defense and it's looking less and less likely that we'll snag a guy like Aaron Smith in the sixth round this year.

After the first tier guys, it gets pretty muddled, so I think that we'll probably take a guy in the later rounds.

I know I've been saying this since Tomlin got hired, but we're going to get a very good glimpse of what their future plans are by how they draft here. They've been taking guys that could fit in the 3-4 or the 4-3 the past few years, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. What's even more interesting will be what they do when the over-the-hill bunch along the current defensive line retires. They have no suitable replacements on the roster and 3-4 linemen are commanding more and more money on the open market.

Defensive Tackles:

Casey Hampton is not walking through that door. It's just not going to happen. The class is very, very deep, but there aren't a lot of 3-4 guys to play nose tackle. A lot of people are saying that BC's Ron Brace is going to be a great nose tackle, but I don't see it. Not enough fire, not strong enough, and he's too spread out. He's 6'3" or 6'4" and his weight isn't all collected within a 20 inch radius around his ass like with Hampton. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

Linebackers:

We're pretty good here, so I don't think we'll be taking anyone too early. If we do, I can see us grabbing a guy like Connor Barwin or Clint Sintim in the second round. Both of those guys are 3-4 guys, but they both have the versatility to play 4-3 end or outside linebacker in the 4-3.

Barwin's really interesting and I hope he lasts that long. He might even be able to play 3-4 end. Only issue with him is that he played tight end until his senior year. Not a lot of bad habits, which is good, but not a lot of habits (or moves or technique) either, which is bad.

Cornerbacks:

This crop of cornerbacks is very, very deep. Maybe that's why the Steelers elected not to pay big money to Bryant McFadden (still available, btw). Maybe they just didn't want to spend all the money.

In any event, Deshea Townsend can't play forever and there's only so much Gay to go around, so we need to draft a good guy here. The good news is that we can still get quality in the third round and beyond. Additionally, after the first round guys, there's not much dropoff until the fourth or fifth round, so we can wait. All the "shutdown" corners will be gone by the time we draft at 32 (we're drafting there because, ya know, we won the Super Bowl and all).

Safeties:

Slim pickings here. Hopefully we can survive another year with Ryan Clark knocking people's dicks into their watch pockets and Troy flying around. But, if one of those guys gets hurt...

Quarterbacks:

I think we bring back Charlie Batch. Or he retires. If he retires, he should have the class to tell us before the draft.

However, that means we would head into the season with Roethlisberger, Dennis Dixon, and rookie-to-be-named-later on the roster. Yikes.

Maybe there's a guy still floating out there in free agency. Ah, who am I kidding? There's always a guy. If need be, we'll snag someone like Leftwich in July, so let's just ignore quarterbacks altogether.

Running Backs:

We need a big, fat dude to push the pile on third and one and third/fourth and goal, because Tomlin's not going to stop just running left in those situations.

Bad news is that there's two big guys in this draft: Beanie Wells and Rashad Jennings. And they'll probably both be gone by the time we pick in the second round.

I'm sure there's someone that went to East Southern Beauty Polytechnic that I'm not aware of, but it doesn't look good.

We can't draft Wells or Jennings in the first round, because that'd be two backs in the first round in back-to-back years, we already have a pretty stacked depth chart, and one of the reasons we can't convert when we run left on third/fourth and short/goal is because our offensive line SUCKS, so we need to draft one of those guys.

Tight Ends:

Pretty crappy group and I think we have the guys that we need on the roster, for as much as we use them.

Wide Receivers:

Whereas there were no first round guys last year, there's plenty this year. Aside from corners, this is the deepest group. But, again, it's top heavy.

There will still be a first round quality guy available when we draft, but we can't take a receiver in the first round because, again, we really need to take an offensive lineman. All the first round guys that slip into the second round will be gone by the time we draft.

So, we're basically looking at a late round receiver with upside. I'm fine with that, considering that that's what Nate Washington was and he worked out just peachy... well, he worked out okay.

Offensive Tackles:

Can't take one of these in the first round, even though it's a good class for it. I think we'll hit a situation like last year when seven or eight guys came off the board -- some with second round grades -- and we took Mendenhall because we didn't want to reach.

We're drafting at the end of the first round because we won the Super Bowl, so we can't take a tackle without reaching. And we don't tend to reach.

Also, there are some quality guys to be had in the fourth and fifth rounds. Ironically, one of those guys is Max Starks clone Jason Watkins. So maybe we take him in the fourth if he's available.

And there will be plenty of Drop Foot-esque options available to us as well. The point is that there won't be any guys with a decent grade on them when we draft in the first two rounds, so we're better off waiting until the run is over and drafting a second or third tier guy later than he should've gone because everyone else already picked one.

Guards/Centers:

Let me make an early prediction. We're taking a guard or a center in the first round. That's either going to be Alex Mack from Cal or Max Unger of Oregon. I'd actually even be okay with Tyronne Green of Auburn.

When it comes to guards and centers, you need to draft one early to be fairly certain of getting a really, really good one. We need to eliminate as much possibility as possible of picking a bad one, so we need to take one early.

Kendall Simmons and Alan Faneca worked out well enough and that's the kind of guy we're looking for.

I'm actually hoping we take Unger, because the revolving door at center is starting to irk me.

One Other Thing:

The Tomlin Era has actually been really disappointing in terms of draft picks. All the guys he inherited are getting older and, aside from Timmons, Vulva, and Woodley, there haven't been guys that have stepped in and made an impact.

I still have faith in Sweed and it's not Mendenhall's fault that he got hurt, but that's still only hitting on first and second round picks and punter in two drafts.

Maybe he's finding his groove. Maybe Kevin Colbert showed up to the War Room drunk both times. Maybe he's stocking the cabinet for when all the current guys retire.

But, all of those are a lot of maybes in what used to be a pretty exact science for the Steelers under Noll and Cowher.

I'm not bitching about Tomlin. He won us a Super Bowl and I think he is a phenomenal coach. But, this is definitely something that needs improvement.