Steelers Draft Review

My top three selections from this draft (in order):

1. Bryant McFadden (fifth round)
2. Maurkice Pouncey (first round)
3. Byron Leftwich (seventh round)

Those are the three guys on this list that will be able to help the team right away. In that order. As you'll notice, two of those guys are people that we traded draft picks for. They were also on the 2008 Steelers, who won Super Bowl XLIII, in case I failed to mention that we won that game.

When the Steelers failed to re-sign McFadden, I called it a John Jackson/Rod Woodson level failure, or something like that. I thought that McFadden was going to go out into the world, dominate everyone, sign a huge deal, and make the Steelers look like idiots. Well, that didn't happen. He failed to win a starting job for Steelers West and was quickly traded in the offseason like he was some wide receiver in a contract year that had judgment issues.

I still have faith in McFadden. He knows the system, LeBeau knows how to use him, and he's no worse than the merry band of turnstiles that we had last season, so there you go. I'm not saying that he comes back in 2010 and dominates, but I think he'll do better with us than he did in the desert.

I am not a Leftwich fan, but I realize that he's somewhere between Dennis Dixon and Charlie Batch on the upside/downside meter. With Batch, you know what you're going to get. You're going to get a guy that has played like four downs of football since the Bush administration (not the first one). With Dixon, you're not sure what you're going to get. With Leftwich, you know you're going to get a statuesque passer that has a 12 second delivery and will, most games, complete 60 percent of his passes and not make any big mistakes. The Steelers refuse to listen to me anyway, but I am happy about the fact that, as some kind of fanboy Goldilocks, I at least have a debate between cold, hot, and just right, with the knowledge that I should pay $78 for the right to eat whatever porridge is selected for me and be happy for the privilege.

To clarify: I am not down on the Steelers, the NFL, or fandom. I am simply preparing myself for the 6-10 season in 2010 and the bitterness that will ensue. By proxy, I'm preparing you. So, you're welcome.

Onto the other picks...

We drafted three OLBs. I'm going to lump them all together because I didn't think that OLB was a huge position of need heading into the draft, but, as always, I was wrong.

Aside from the fact that Jason Worilds -- I have heard his name pronounced ten times and I still don't think I have it right -- went to Virgina Tech, I like him. I wanted the Steelers to draft Golden Tate -- who was still available, by the way -- but, it's their team, I guess, so they can draft who they want. The issue with this pick is that we already have two Pro Bowl guys in Woodley and Harrison, so it's going to be at least two years (barring injury) before Worilds sees the field in any significant way. Granted, Tomlin hates rookies, but I would have rather seen them pick Tate and have him supplant Randle-El in the return game and take over Santonio's role of "guy that catches the ball, then runs around 20 dudes on his way to the end zone." At this point, we don't have a guy like that. We need a guy like that.

Thaddeus Gibson has a bad-ass name. He went to Ohio State. I think we're done here.

Stevenson Sylvester has a name that sounds like he was cut out of an Oscar Wilde play because the character name was too absurd. He's listed as an outside linebacker, but he only weighs 231 pounds. Mike Tomlin said at the draft that he, "Likes guys that are 250 pounds and like to run around and hit people." That's a great sound bite, but it begs the question: Why draft Sylvester? Now, if you're fat like me, you understand the difference between 231 pounds and 250 pounds. Skinny people don't get it. There is a HUGE difference. Does he just contribute on special teams? Do we try to move him inside? He's still a little small for that? Do we treat him like veal and try to shove food down his throat while he can't move so that he gets fat? I don't understand. There were offensive linemen available at this point. There were cornerbacks. There were running backs. Why draft someone that would make me make an off-color veal joke? I just don't get it.

Emmanuel Sanders is an undersized player who projects to play out of the slot. Why, then, did we sign Randle-El? Arnaz Battle? Still wondering why we didn't take Tate.

Because we drafted Antonio Brown in the sixth round. He has no chance to make the roster unless he returns kicks. Golden Tate returns kicks. So does Antwaan Randle-El. Again, I am confused.

Let's move on to picks I actually liked:

I like Doug Worthington. He's big -- 6'6" and 292 pounds, about the same size as Aaron Smith -- and the knock on him is that he's not a pass rusher and he takes on too many blocks. How is this not perfect for a 3-4 end? Why didn't other teams take him? I know they were all busy passing on Golden Tate and Colt McCoy and Jimmy Clausen, but it's still perplexing. I think that Worthington has real potential, especially given that the average age of our defensive linemen is death.

Jonathan Dwyer, in my opinion, was a great pick. They got him in the sixth round, so there's very little risk involved and not really any expectations tied with the pick -- like with Worilds, who has a lot of Alonzo Jackson in him, but maybe I'm just bitter -- and he averaged 1,395 yards rushing the last two seasons. Granted, that was in the ACC. Granted, Chan Gailey was his coach. Granted, he was 255 pounds at the end of the season and lost 25 pounds to get down to 230 for the Combine. His weight needs to be monitored. He runs too upright. He has a fat man's feet -- the biggest asset that Jerome Bettis, the quintessential fat man, had was that he had the nimble feet and hips of a much smaller man -- and he's not fast. Not like, not 40-time fast, but really not fast. Like, if he has a run longer than 15 yards in the NFL, it will be because everyone on the defense has been knocked down. However, he was a tremendously productive college player, he runs well between the tackles, and he's money inside the 10. If he were a first round pick, I'd be upset. In the sixth round, I think he can contribute.

Now, the guy I'm not sure about:

Chris Scott, Guard, Tennessee. He could be the next DFS, he could be the next Trai Essex. The thing is that he's not fast or athletic enough to play tackle, but he's too tall and he's not mean enough to play guard. So... do like with Essex and make him the top back-up at both positions and pray no one gets hurt? I don't like where that's headed, but Essex was a third round pick and Scott was one of three fifth round picks, so I'm willing to take a whirl.

Draft Grade:

Since I have to take McFadden and Leftwich out of the equation, I need to give this draft a C. Basically, they took a bunch of fliers on a bunch of guys that could make it big or could totally bust out. If they make it big, I look dumb and the Steelers benefit. If they bust out, I look like a genius and the Steelers suffer.

Guess which one of those scenarios I'm rooting for, given that I am usually wrong?