Friday, February 22nd, 2008 by Adam Wagner
The Steelers are being delusional
Kevin Colbert has announced the Steelers’ draft strategy and, while it is no different than it has been in previous years, it is still somewhat surprising. Colbert stated, of course, that the Steelers are going to draft the “best player available” as long as that player is not a quarterback or a tight end, two positions where the Steelers believe that they are set for the short- and long-term future. Colbert then went on to say that the reason for this is that the Steelers have a solid amount of depth at every other position, an assumption that is ridiculous on the part of the Steelers, who, rather than being strong at most positions, are actually extremely thin.
The Steelers have holes all along their offensive line, where they recently placed the transition player tag on Max Starks, who had an extremely inconsistent season at left tackle. The line is also where many mock drafts have the Steelers making their first round pick, with former Pitt tackle Jeff Otah being the selection in many of those drafts. That would make sense, as the line has holes everywhere, particularly with the impending loss of Alan Faneca, and a versatile, consistent lineman is the type of player that the Steelers absolutely need.
There are also impending holes on the defensive line, as anchor Casey Hampton is entering his eighth season in the league and standout end Aaron Smith is heading into his tenth season. The line, on either offense or defense, is a demanding position that will eventually take its toll on the players. The Steelers need to start grooming the successors to those two players now, much as they groomed Brett Kiesel to take over at right defensive end.
Other upcoming holes on defense could include linebacker where, despite the additions of LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons in last year’s draft, Clark Haggans is a free agent and James Farrior is entering his 12th season of football. This is not necessarily a concern in this year’s draft, but definitely could become in short order.
The secondary, in particular cornerback, is always an issue and is the same coming into this year, when Ike Taylor and Bryant McFadden, the likely future of the position for the Steelers, are coming off of relatively disappointing seasons where neither developed into the type of blanket corner that the Steelers need.
On the offensive side of the ball, however, Ben Roethlisberger has called for a taller receiver, something that the Steelers may want to give him just to keep the franchise quarterback happy even though wide receiver is nowhere near the top of the team’s priority list at the moment despite the presence of the aging Hines Ward and the fact that the team had four NFL receivers at the end of last season (Willie Reid does not count). The team really does need to address its wideout depth.
The other weakness on the offense, and the final on the team, is at running back. Yes, the Steelers have the daunting presence of Willie Parker and a solid backup in Najeh Davenport, but the best teams have two running back systems (or four running back systems, if you are the New York Giants). The Steelers really could use a young, pounding type of back in order to reassert their superiority in the ground game, something that did not seem at all evident last season after Willie Parker wore down and the offensive line became more porous.
All in all, the Steelers’ most glaring weakness is at offensive line, as the problems with the running game and the issue of keeping Roethlisberger on his feet are traced back to those guys. The Steelers should take the best player available, but they should be also be giving all of the strong offensive line prospects longer looks than guys at other positions.
Leave a Reply