I am even less of an expert on football than I am on hockey, but this does not mean that I dont have opinions............is anybody else a little confused by the choices made by the Steelers thus far? I am not going to say that each of the first three picks may not turn out to be GREAT players......I truly have not followed the draft this season enough to have even a marginally informed opinion on THAT. I have come to the conclusion that the first round pick, Pouncey has grown on me. Not only does he have the talent, he seems to be a tremendous character guy, and upon finding out he can play the guard position, I can surely see how Pouncey can have an effect on this years team, and well into the future. As far as Worilds, he may be wonderful, but he plays a position OLB, currently manned by players of decent pedigree......you know James Harrison and Lamarr Woodley don't you? By the Steelers own admission, Worilds will have a hard time seeing the field this year, but could contribute on special teams in the meantime. Special teams for the Steelers have sucked for two years, so that is not totally insignificant by any means BUT, linebacker is probably the deepest, most talented area the Steelers have right now. They have HORRIBLE cornerback play, no suitable second string back to play in LIKELY event that Rashard Mendenhall gets hurt and misses a game or two, they have an aging defensive line, they have horrible safety depth as witnessed by last years play when Polamalu was out.............and you may have noticed that Polamalu is out A LOT. Their offensive line is very bad...........Worilds sounds like an impact player, as much as one can tell coming out of college, but in my book with a second round pick on a team with this many issues, they should have taken the most talented player on the board in an area of current need. In my book that is cornerback, running back, and both lines. Second round picks can often times make an impact in their first season, so I was disppointed that the Steelers did not make a pick that addressed those needs now. Their third round pick, a speedy WR from SMU to me fits into the same category........cannot argue with his skill set, though he was suspended for breaking mulitple team rules during his junior season. I just did not think that WR was an area of immediate need like the areas noted above. The Steelers have 2 fourth round picks, and 4 fifth round picks, so they have enough in the later rounds to add DEPTH players, PROJECTS, and/or special teams help in rounds 4 through 7 so I am somewhat disappointed that they did not use their impact round picks for immediate areas of need OR even package a late round pick to move up in the second round for an impact corner or running back. Instead of taking advantage of the season without a cap to use free agency and the draft to take a serious run at the title again, it really appears to me as if the Rooneys are going to use this season as a write off, and slowly rebuild.....I get the slowly rebuild and reload, but I do not get the write off....with a solid corner, depth in the backfield, and more luck in the health area, the Steelers could be a competitive playoff team. If they do not address corner, and go into the season with one quality threat at running back, they have issues. Perhaps they feel that the suspension of Ben makes their return to prominence a two year project, and their picks make more sense in that context with an aging Ward at WR, and an expensive and somewhat older Harrison at OLB.
*As I view this draft in its entirety, it does not make great sense to me.......I liked getting McFadden for a fifth round pick, especially the way we were using our picks.....but I wonder why the Cardinals let him go, and gave us a sixth round pick on top of it? Hey, for what we spent, a good move.....I dont get linebackers in the 2nd, 4th and fifth round........I dont mind Gibson in the fourth, but Worilds as high as second made no sense to me.......would rather have seen any one of the top corners, or Golden Tate taken here........I thought we brought Foote back to add depth to the LB's so that we did not have to address this position heavily in THIS draft? We really need corners and still need a quality RB behind Mendenhall......would have thought that Lendale White or Leon Washington would have been decent solutions for a couple of seasons.......this draft creates more questions than answsers in my opinion, and with the number of picks, I really thought the Steelers would have been able to do more to address some immediate areas of concern.
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