Steelers draft in review

If you spent Saturday afternoon doing something much more satisfying than watching the NFL Draft and looked at the end result of the Steeler draft, you would be right to conclude they had traded up in the first round and back into the first or at least the early second.And here is the rest of it.The Steelers thought the #3 rater running back might fall into their lap at the 23rd pick in the first round, but this was largely dismissed as wishful thinking. Instead it was the #2 ranked back Rashad Mendenhall, a quick and powerful runner from Illinois who decimated the Big 10 and USC in the Rose Bowl. Running back doesn't appear to the biggest need facing the Steelers and it isn't. That's not to say a running back is a luxury in an era where two backs are the rule and the slight size of the incumbent feature back Willie Parker. Indeed, when Parker broke his leg in the 13th game of the season, the Steelers season was effectively over because Davenport was unable to pick up the mantle.

In the second round, Texas wide receiver Limas Sweed fell to the Steelers without them having to budge. Arguably the highest rated receiver in the draft, Sweed fell due to his abbreviated senior year after he was forced to undergo wrist surgery. The injury was picked up in the 2007 Spring Game but has been ruled to be cleared. Sweed is a tall, gliding receiver in the mold of Plaxico Burress. He has excellent hands and concentration - two skills Burress has never possessed with any degree of consistency.

Head Coach Mike Tomlin addressed criticism over the failure to draft the offensive linemen everyone had identified as their greatest need. On the issue of protecting their $100+m quarterback, Tomlin argued that giving him more weapons achieved the same goal as drafting for the line.

"There are two schools of thought to protect a quarterback," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "You can get linemen, or you can get him weapons."

To my eye, it's an argument that benefits from necessity. There were few linemen in the first round worthy of excitement. Even still, teams were mortgaging their drafts to get a shot at tweeners and projects like Albert, Otah and Cherilus. Even Sam Baker and in one of the most absurd picks of the draft, Duane Brown were desperate reaches and trade targets. All but Brown were gone by the time the Steelers came up on the clock.

Mendenhall subbing for Parker or vice versa will never give defenses a moment of rest the way Davenport did. Sweed will terrorize the opposite sideline while Ward and Miller can attack from the slots. You can see Tomlin's logic. There is also the argument that I happen to believe in that with the exception of the Mahan mistake at center, the pieces are there to fix the line. We made some poor personal decisions on the line. Mahan wasn't the right candidate to play center. Starks should have never lost right tackle in training camp to Colon, and the Kemoeatu/Simmons battle ended too quickly at right guard and they paid Simmons too much in his extension.

The Steelers had a more productive day two than usual. In the third round, UCLA's DE/OLB Bruce Davis is a classic Steeler 3-4 project. Davis appears to never give up on a play, always know where the ball is,  he has filled the need to replace Joey Porter's mouth, and he hates Corso and Herbstreet. So plus one for good taste.  Not bad for the 88th overall.



In the fourth round, hey picked up another selection off the IR drafting Texas OT Tony Hills, an athletic former tight end who broke his leg in his senior year, or he would likely have been a day one draft pick. A versatile and intelligent Iowa linebacker in Mike Humpal and speedy safety Ryan Mundy from West Virginia in the final round. But the most intriguing pick of day two has to be Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon in the fifth. Dixon tore his ACL midseason at which point he had moved the Ducks into a #2 ranking and was a leading Heisman candidate. Dixon has height, speed and agility should they decide to work him at receiver while he provides depth at quarterback.