Steelers the perfect team for Biletnikoff winner
James Washington knows exactly what he’s stepping into with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
No NFL team drafts wide receivers quite like the Steelers.
“I just feel like the Steelers, they make good choices,” Washington, the former Oklahoma State star, told reporters after Pittsburgh took him in the second round, 60th overall.
And how. Now Washington, who won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver, is positioned — and wellequipped — to continue a Steelers tradition.
Consider the track record: Antonio Brown, the best wideout in the game today, was a sixth-round pick (195th overall). Martavis Bryant was a fourthround pick in 2014 and in being traded to the Oakland Raiders on Thursday was worth a third-round pick in exchange.
Emmanuel Sanders and Mike Wallace, who left a few years ago with big free agent deals, were third-round picks. Last year’s rookie sensation, JuJu Smith-Schuster, was a second-round pick.
In Washington, the Steelers get a man who played like a first-round talent but doesn’t possess prototype size (5-11) or speed (4.54 second 40).
“He’s not the biggest, he’s probably not the fastest, but he’s as good of a deep receiver that played college football this year,” Steelers GM Kevin Colbert said.
Receivers don’t always acclimate quickly to the NFL, but that was hardly the case last year with Smith-Shuster. Unlike the third-round selection of Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph, perhaps a future option to succeed Ben Roethlisberger, Washington is needed for immediate impact, given Bryant’s departure.
Colbert envisions Washington for inside and outside receiver roles and perhaps even as a returner, which he didn’t do in college. And besides the big hands and strength that helps get him off the line of scrimmage, the Steelers give Washington high marks for another trait that resonates with the flame-out last season of Bryant: Maturity.
As new offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner put it, “The hope is that he’s not one of those maintenance guys.”
Other key impressions in recapping the draft:
Twin victory: Shaquem Griffin’s big draft moment not only serves as a significant inspirational marker fueled by his determination to blossom into a star player despite having his left hand amputated as a child. It also speaks to the impact of his twin brother, Shaquill, who now also becomes his teammate with the Seattle Seahawks.
Would this have happened if Shaquill, heavily recruited out of Lakewood High in St. Petersburg, Fla., didn’t insist that colleges offered his brother a scholarship, too, as a package deal?
Shaquill turned down eight scholarship offers before signing on at Central Florida.
“As soon as we walked into Coach (George) O’Leary’s office, he said, ‘I’m not offering one a scholarship without offering one to the other,’ ” Shaquill recalled for USA TODAY. “He knew the message. He said it before I could even get the words out of my mouth.”
As the draft loomed, though, the brothers were braced for the possibility of remaining separated. Shaquill estimated there was a “1% chance” they would wind up as NFL teammates.
Then again, beating long odds is old hat for these twins.
Damage control: Josh Allen has work to do in the Bills locker room to prevent any lingering effect from the ra- cially insensitive tweets he posted in high school, exposed on the eve of the draft. The controversy didn’t adversely affect Allen’s draft status; the Bills had direct conversations with the former Wyoming quarterback about the tweets on Thursday before choosing him eighth overall.
“Obviously, I’ve got to man up and take it on the chin, and what happened was not acceptable,” Allen said, “and it’s never going to happen again.”
Given the offensive nature of the tweets — which Allen contends were a reflection of being “young and dumb” — it might be natural for some AfricanAmerican teammates to be skeptical.
And Allen, given the leadership role that is inherent with the quarterback job, would be wise to quickly address the matter with new teammates, then allow his actions to support his words.
“I’ve learned from it,” Allen insisted. “Hopefully the coaching staff and teammates will welcome me with open arms and I’ll earn their respect every day.”
Wizardry of Oz: Time will tell whether Ozzie Newsome went out with a bang in his final draft as Ravens general manager, but the manner in which the “Wizard of Oz” operated was impressive in its own right.
The Ravens tied a franchise record by drafting 12 players, and Newsome swung six trades, moving back five times and moving up once — to select Lamar Jackson with the final pick of the first round.
There was also a certain symmetry. Newsome had two first-round picks, including South Carolina tight end Hayden Hurst. He also had two first-rounders in his first Ravens draft in 1996 — which turned out to be Hall of Famers Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis.
Ogden was Newsome’s first pick. His last? Ferris State defensive end Zach Sieler.
The success of this draft, though, could hinge on whether Jackson, the 2016 Heisman Trophy winner, develops into the successor for Joe Flacco — whose silence to the media during a fan event on Saturday sent a distinct message nonetheless.
And there was something all-too-human about the third-round selection of former Oklahoma tackle Orlando Brown Jr. Brown’s late father, also known as “Zeus,” had two stints with the Ravens, including his comeback for the final three years of his career after rehabilitating from an eye injury suffered from a bean bag-weighted penalty flag thrown by referee Jeff Triplette.
Brown wrote Newsome a letter recently expressing a desire to be drafted by the Ravens. Sure enough, it happened.