Steelers filled holes early, then changed philosophy
SEE STEELERS, PAGE C-9
The next time someone in charge of the Steelers’ draft tries to peddle the idea they select the highest-rated player on the board, ask them if they also have the Liberty Bridge to sell.
This is not the first draft in which the Steelers have stuck primarily to filling needs rather than picking their most highly rated and it will not be the last. It just is one perfect example of how it is done, at least through Friday. After that, all bets were off.
Why they selected a quarterback in the fourth round to join Landry Jones as a backup is another matter. And then there was the strangest pick of all, drafting a long snapper in the sixth round.
There is nothing wrong with filling needs through the draft, by the way, as long as they do not overlook a great prospect because of it. All teams do it. Gone are the days before free agency when you could draft someone and keep him forever. Now, there is a four-year window for a player to prove he can play or not and then it’s either time to move on or pay the really big money on a second contract.
It took quarterback Terry Bradshaw well into his fifth season before he proved himself. Teams would have cut him after his second or third season these days.
The Steelers filled holes with their top four picks. It might not take four years, but it could take a few before we discover if they did a good job of it, what with Jarvis Jones’ exit still fresh in everyone’s mind.
Because they failed on Jones, they used their firstround pick to draft outside linebacker T.J. Watt. There would have been no Watt pick if Jones had succeeded. Nevertheless, if at first they don’t succeed, draft, draft again.
“We think we really added some good players who will help us in different areas,’’ general manager Kevin Colbert said. “It unfolded as we had hoped. There weren’t many surprises. It sorted out good.”
Their first four selections were outside linebacker, wide receiver, cornerback and halfback. Surprise. That is about how their needs were listed pre-draft, although you could move them around a bit.
Watt will try to do the unprecedented, make an impact as a rookie outside linebacker. None has with the Steelers — ever. Bud Dupree came on somewhat late in his rookie season, and LaMarr Woodley was effective rotating as a rookie. Each finished with four sacks as a rookie. The great ones the Steelers drafted in the 3-4 defense era — James Harrison, Greg Lloyd, Joey Porter, Mike Merriweather, Jason Gildon — had to wait past their first season.
Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, drafted in the second round, fills a hole created by the annual suspension of Martavis Bryant and the near total lack of confidence the coaches have in Sammie Coates. Antonio Brown was triple-teamed enough last season; time to make sure someone will be available to take the pressure off him.
The Steelers again attempted to fill an obvious need for the past several drafts, that of cornerback, with the choice of Cameron Sutton with their first pick in the third round. Was he a reach? Perhaps, but they have to keep drafting cornerbacks at least until they find some who can play, as they did with Artie Burns last year. To prove it, they drafted another in the fifth, Brian Allen.
With their second pick in the third round, it was on to another need, and it may be one of their most important. The Steelers discovered what life was like without Le’Veon Bell and a capable backup in each of the past three postseasons — losses to Baltimore to end 2014, at Denver to end 2015 and then at New England to end 2016.
James Conner will make a difference, one way or the other, starting in the regular season. They cannot continue to have Bell touch the ball over 400 times as he did in 2016. That groin injury that required surgery had to be a big red flag for the Steelers in that regard.
Conner’s raging bull should be a perfect complement to Bell’s patient style of running. For defenses, it will be like trying to stop Muhammad Ali floating like a butterfly and then having Joe Frazier jump in to punch out the lights. Spell Bell more often than they have in the past, keep him fresher and maybe even around for all the postseason games.
And that brings us to Joshua Dobbs, a spread quarterback from Tennessee some compare to Dak Prescott.
This is where the Steelers stopped drafting for need and drafted for … what? A replacement for Ben Roethlisberger? Hardly. The NFL has a history of quarterbacks in the fourth round or better becoming the franchise leaders; it’s just an extremely short list.
Is Dobbs a replacement for Landry Jones? Certainly at least a replacement for Zach Mettenberger. But so what? How does that affect the Steelers approach to perhaps finding their successor for Roethlisberger in a better quarterback class next year? Or in 2019, Roethlisberger’s final year under contract?
We put aside all those questions today, though, to contemplate the mystery of the Steelers draft — selecting Louisville long-snapper Colin Holba in the sixth round. What, there were no football players left?