Steelers Draft Re Cap

Well, it’s been a few days since the 2011 draft finished and we wanted to take our time to get a good look at the new crop of Steelers.  A lot of media outlets like to rate and grade each team’s draft but we aren’t going to give it a score of letter grade of any kind. As Kevin Colbert says, it takes a few years before you can really grade a draft class and he seems to know what he’s talking about so we’ll buy into that.  Now, do we buy into what the black and gold did? Let’s find out…

In the first round with the 2nd to last pick (sure wish it were the last pick!) the Steelers took Cam “Iron Head” Heyward, the defensive end out of Ohio State.  We had suspected they would take a D End at some point in the drat but we were a little shocked they did it here.  However, Craig’s son can play some ball. He’s a big man, 6 foot 4 and 295 pounds and he has a little bit of a Pittsburgh connection considering his dad played at Pitt.  He can really cause havoc for the running backs on the opposite side of the ball, get to the QB and plays with intensity.  We think he could have a nice long career and will be a book end with Ziggy Hood very soon. 

Check out some Cam Heyward Highlights here:

In the second  round the Steelers picked up a 6 foot 6, 330 pound offensive tackle out of Florida, Marcus Gilbert.  We were hoping the offesnive lineman they would get out of Florida would have been Mike Pouncey but that would have been in the first half of the first round, so this is a good pick in the 2nd. We all know the Steelers need offensive line help and he can plug a much needed hole with the Steelers not sure who will and won’t be returning from the Super Bowl line of a season ago.  He can help keep Big Ben healthy and that’s obviously the most important thing here.

Here’s a little of Marcus:

Roud 3 saw the Steelers bring in a much needed corner.  The secondary was exposed in the Super Bowl and the teams’ best corner, Ike Taylor is a free agent as soon as the lockout is over. We believe they need to keep him but that’s a story for another day. Right now, we’ll talk about Curtis Brown, the 5 foot 11 185 pound corner out of Texas who the Steelers seem to believe is a shut down corner. If they are right, we’ll be very happy as they need someone opposite Taylor starting next year. Brown has the potential to start right way, keeps the receivers covered and could be a huge impact right away.

The 4th round saw the team bring in another cornerback. His name is Cortez Allen and he’s 6 foot 1, 197.  He played his ball at the Citadel and was a defensive player of the year in the football sub division. That all said, we feel this may be a reach. We hope we’re wrong and sure small school guys have had success in the NFL before, but it’s usually rare and you only hear of the guys who make, not the many who fail. We hope he can be a good nickel back at the very least but we think he may be gone in the next 2 to 3 years, sadly.

The 5th round saw an old Steeler staple brought in, an outside linebacker, Christopher Carter out of Fresno State.  He was a force in the WAC last year and could be what the Steelers think is a replacement for LaMarr Woodley. Don’t laugh, we’re serious. They haven’t given Woodley a long term deal, but only the Franchise Tag.  That’s a one year deal. They may string Woodley along a couple years but you know the Steelers don’t overpay for guys. This could be a signal as to what their future plans are. We think Carter can and will be a good one. The Steelers don’t typically miss on linebackers.

An offensive guard, Keith Williams out of Nebraska, was picked in round 6. We like the pick, you can never have too many offensive lineman and they Steelers truly need them.  We think he can be a nice sub and eventual starter. He’s a big guy, 6 foot 4, 318 pounds.  We love the big guys blocking for Big Ben, opening holes for Mendenhall and taking up space. This guy has the assets, is agile and can be here for a while.

Lastly the Steelers picked up running back Baron Batch, no relation to Charlie, from Texas Tech. They see him as a much needed 3rd down back. We aren’t sure here. He had good numbers, posting over 800 yards on less than 200 carries last year but with Jonathan Dwyer on the roster can he oust him? There’s only so many guys you can carry at each position. We think he’ll be a practice squad guy to start and will need more time to see.

Overall the team picked up what they needed positionally and now it must translate onto the field. Some of these guys will be here for a while, others won’t make it at all but as the man who picked these guys says, we’ll see how well we did in a couple years.