Monday, April 30, 2007

Steeler Draft 07: What it all means.

The Steelers polished off their draft by adding a big wide receiver from Florida who looked good in the National Championship game (didn't they all?). Hopefully he will pan out.

The Tomlin era was ushered in by the drafting of Lawrence Timmons and was hated by nearly all Steeler fans. Timmons is a 4-3 backer, plain and simple. He's not the 6-4, 260 pound hybrid 3-4 OLB pass rusher every Steeler fan wanted or needed. Alot of Steeler fans have rationalized that he could be an inside backer in the 3-4, but that's not what Tomlin is saying.

The Steelers did get this guy in Round 2, however. LaMarr Woodley is a DE/OLB who is 6-2, 269. So maybe the Steelers are hedging their bets. Woodley doesn't have as large a frame as you would want, but he is thick and strong and has had success rushing the passer in a major college program.

Some people are second guessing the 6-7 270lb TE Matt Spaeth, widely considered to be the best blocking TE in the draft. The Steelers believe he has Heath Miller-like pass catching qualities. Some fans don't like this pick because depth on the TE front should not have been addressed so early. However, with fullbacks being phased out across the league, I believe that this pick is meant to provide depth at the FB position...a lot of teams are running 2 TE 1 back formations and if this means the Steelers are going to start throwing to their TEs more, I'm all for it.

The Steelers traded up to get one of the top 2 punters in the draft, and also picked a project in Ryan McBean, a 4-3 DE who with a large frame and at 286lbs could fill out to be a 3-4 DE. Like Aaron Smith and Brett Keisel.

The 5th round pick was a road grader guard, given the Steelers potential depth issues in the interior line (Faneca disgruntled, in last year of contract, Kendall Simmons in last year of contract, hasn't produced.) Many thought the Steelers would have gone IOL on the first day, and if this guy doesn't work out, then maybe they were right.

In my earlier post about the draft I noted that Stillers.com analysts wrote that, had the Steelers focused on front seven defense in last year's draft, able to pick up DeMeco Ryans and Mark Anderson at their respective drafting positions, rather than trading up and reaching for Santonio Holmes, they would be able to focus on OL, RB, and secondary this year. Well, that didn't happen, and the Steelers drafted this year for positions of need (LB) at the top, but looked for depth elsewhere. Will it pan out? I hope so.

The Steelers dramatically improved their special teams with this draft, and provided that Woodley can provide a decent pass rush, the Steelers should be in good shape. If not...and the injury bug hits, the Steelers could be in big trouble.

1 comment:

wagnerav said...

Luckily the Steelers have a great history of their draft picks panning out. What'd that one article i cited last week say--they put Steelers in the Top 4 teams with terrific drafting histories--something like that. I share your concern with their first pick fitting the scheme, but hopefully it works out. With a fairly easy schedule this year, I like our chances (that is, against everyone except the Ravens).