On Second Thought

The NFL season seems to be lasting longer and longer each year. The day after Mr. Irrelevant is taken, Mel Kiper and Todd McShay come out with mock drafts for the next year. Really? Does Kiper really think that any of the guesses that he formulates right now will have any semblance of reality a year from now? Doubtful, but that's what the NFL is right now. It is such a popular entity that people hang on the edge of their seats with these mock drafts with anticipation that the players that are chosen by these experts will be the ones chosen by the teams. The only problem with this is many teams go a long way to make sure that noone knows who they are picking. They leak misinformation by various means and voila, the experts latch on and boom that's who those teams are drafting. Funny thing is, rarely that's who they draft.

This year the misinformation was flying around. Ben wanted a big receiver to target. The cornerback position was getting older by the day. Ike's getting slower and William Gay is not getting better. Cortez Allen has barely done anything to prove he's worthy of taking over and the rest of the cornerbacks are a bunch of unproven, underwhelming projects. There were secondary reports that maybe Eric Ebron was the target. There weren't many projections of a linebacker being drafted. Safety had already been taken care of in last year's draft and free agency this year. Defensive linemen were a need and there were rumors floating around about that position as well as Louis Nix and the Nose Tackle.

I was very much looking forward to them selecting a shutdown corner.  There were three or four corners that were available that many had decided were high enough quality to be considered first rounders.  There was Justin Gilbert, Kyle Fuller, Darqueze Dennard and probably some others.  Those experts that I talked about earlier seemed to think that Gilbert and Fuller would be gone before number 15.  So, it looked like the Steelers had Dennard in their sights, which was fine by me.  I'd seen Dennard play and despite the fact that he was not the fastest cb available he seemed to fit into the Steelers mold for a corner.  Toughness, check, size, check, sufficient speed, check. Watching him play in college the average person would think that he was the player that fit the top need the Steelers had.  The Steelers apparently didn't think so, because he was there and they didn't take him.  All I could see was Ike slowing down even more, Cortez not being able to take the reins as the second cornerback and Gay being slightly below starting cornerback calibre. Thankfully Josh Gordon helped the Steelers out and himself into a year suspension more than likely. There's still AJ Jenkins though and Torrey Smith. The Steelers need someone to cover those guys. So, the Steelers blew their chances and the 2014-2015 season is over before it started.

Not so fast, says Dick Lebeau and Carnell Lake. Along comes the Steelers number one pick. At number 15 the Pittsburgh Steelers select 4.40. That's not the player, it's Ryan Shazier and he runs a 4.4 40 yard dash. That should get him to the quarterback pretty quick. Quick enough to get to the quarterback before he gets a pass off, or at least fast enough to put a hit on him. It's hard to hit a receiver if you are lying on your back or a linebacker knocks the ball out of your hand.  4.4 let's you make mistakes occassionaly and still be able to get back to make the play. 4.4 let's Troy Polamalu stay in the secondary or get to the backfield instead of playing where 4.4 should be. There's also 4.3 playing safety. Troy may have had near that at one time but probably not now, but there are a couple new kids in town in Shamarko Thomas and Mike Mitchell with blazing speed. They both have their question marks. Shamarko looks like a beast, has 4.3 speed and is a workout maniac. But, he hasn't done anything in the NFL yet. The good news is Troy did little his first year and he's turned out pretty good. Mitchell has taken a few years and a few teams to find his groove with Carolina, but did Carolina just have a system that fit him or did he just grow into his position. I think both of these guys will be welcome additions and should improve the defense dramatically. Then, there's always the chance that the Steelers braintrust knew what they were doing while drafting Shaquille Richardson. I think Carnell Lake has done a decent job with the defensive backfield and he is familiar with Richardson through his time at UCLA, so maybe he'll pan out, but he will most likely be a project. Shazier and 2nd round pick Stephon Tuitt should help a run defense which desperately needed help. If the running game can be stopped that makes the offense predictable. 1 yard run on 1st down = 2nd down pass or 3rd down pass. Sack or Hurry the QB and that leads to a turnover. So, maybe, just maybe the Steelers knew what they were doing when they passed over DD in the first round.  We will definitely find out because the Bengals thought he was a good enough bet to take in the first round and we will probably be seeing him 2 times a year.

Just a not about Dri Archer.  I watched some highlight film on him.  Yes, I know it's called highlight film because it is his best plays, but he is lightning quick.  He has speed to get around the corner in the NFL like fast Willie used to.  In those highlights their was no angle the defense could take because he outran the angle. He's what the Steelers wanted in Chris Rainney a few years ago, but without the baggage that came along with Rainney.  Hopefully he has good hands because he can run past secondaries the way Wallace did also.

Then there's Daniel McCullers.  Supposedly he's not the fastest guy in the NFL, but his size is so intriguing.  6'7" and 352 pounds.  This guy is  massive and if anyone could block more than one person at a time he should be able to.  But size does not always make the best players.  I'd love to see him play nose tackle if he can tie up a few linemen and allow the linebackers to find the holes, but it sounds more like he will be an end. 

This looks like a very positive draft, but the only way to measure the quality of draft is to see how well they have performed and the only way to measure that is to wait a few years and see who works out.  Then again there's those 6 Lombardis that are proof that the Steelers know a little about drafting Super Bowl teams.