Revisiting the 3rd round

The one area of question I have in the draft was in the third round (as it often seems to be with Colbert). The Steelers took one of their trademark DE/OLB projects Bruce Davis out of UCLA. With Haggans leaving and Woodley spending noteworthy time on the injury list last year, the need to acquire depth at the OLB position is a legitimate concern. Was it more of a concern than the needs on the defensive line? I would argue not and I think the Steelers would as well.

In fact, Bob Labriola acknowledged that Steelers traded down with the Giants after Seattle snagged Texas A & M defensive tackle Red Bryant two spots ahead of the Steelers in the 4th round and they were prepared to draft him. The Steelers had invited Maryland defensive tackle Dre Moore to the South Side for a visit, but he went in the middle of the fourth round to Tampa Bay so we never had a chance at him in the 4th.

I would have thought that Dre Moore was a second to third round candidate. Apparently most of the league disagreed with that opinion. When the Steelers came up in the third round, I thought they would draft Moore or possibly Pittsburgh native, Penn State corner Justin King who had a disappointing senior year but still possessed elite speed. Instead they went with Davis.

I would have thought that Davis would be available in the 4th round and Moore wouldn't. Now we don't know where the Steelers had Moore ranked. They might have not even had a 4th round grade on him so all of this could be moot. They worked him out. That doesn't mean they liked what they saw. Apparently not third round enough at least.

The other thing we can't know is would Davis had lasted to our pick in the 4th round. What we do know is three LB's were chosen in that period. The Browns traded up to draft ILB Beau Bell who is nothing like Davis. Houston drafted Xavier Adibi a smallish, pure linebacker from Virginia Tech. Now Tennessee did draft a DE/OLB project William Hayes out of Winston Salem. Davis is much higher related than Hayes so it is possible that Tennessee would have drafted Davis instead. Then again, Jeff Fisher is a USC alum so who knows?

Still, you had a very good draft when this is the only question and the debate is this close.