Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

April 25, 2009

With the 32nd pick in the 2009 NFL draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers select Evander Hood, DT, Missouri.

Hood is a 6’3″ 300 lb. defensive tackle.  Despite his large size, Hood is quite athletic.  He plays with a constant motor and never gives up on a play.  Hood displays a variety of pass rush moves.

Hood doesn’t jump out at you on film, but he is a solid player who doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses.  He had a very good showing at the Senior Bowl, which may have elevated his status.

Hood is too small to play NT, so the Steelers probably project him as a DE.  While he is a tad short, I had him as the 4th rated 3-4 DE in the draft.  I felt that Tyson Jackson, Fili Moala, Robert Ayers, Ziggy Hood, Sen’Derrick Marks, and then Jarron Gilbert were the top six 3-4 defensive ends in this draft.

Hood was a 4-year player at Missouri.  He got progressively better throughout his career.   As a senior, he had 62 tackles.  Eight of those tackles were for a loss.  He also had 5 sacks during his senior year.

This is a good pick for the Steelers.  Yet, they still have more needs on the defensive line.  All of their starters are over 30 years old.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they picked up either Fili Moala or Jarron Gilbert in the 2nd round (if either is still available at pick #64).

Of course, the Steelers have other needs as well.  I would guess that defensive back will be a consideration at #64 as well.  The Steelers must come out of this draft with a safety.  Their need for a CB is still there, though it is less pressing since they signed Keiwan Ratliff yesterday.

To read about the Steelers’ next pick, click here.

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April 22, 2009
By Donald Starver

With only 3 days remaining until the 2009 NFL draft, fans are searching for any final clues that may help them determine who their favorite team is going to draft.  Traffic at mock draft websites is at an all-time high this time of year.  Fans seem to think that mock drafts may have some insight that will tell them who their team is going to select (they don’t).

With that in mind, I’ve decided to make your lives a lot easier.  Rather than allow you to spend countless hours scouring the millions of mock drafts that are out there, I’ve done the heavy lifting for you.  I’ve studied every mock draft in the HailRedskins mock draft database and the Walter Football mock draft database.  If you haven’t visited these excellent sites, I recommend that you do so.

There is a lot of overlap in the websites that are listed.  However, Walter Football’s database contains 250 mock drafts while Hail Redskins only has 228.  Therefore, I chose Walter Football’s mock draft database as the data source for this analysis.

I have cumulated the results of all of the mock drafts listed in Walter Football’s mock draft database, and am reporting the results for the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Some of the mock drafts in the database were eliminated because they were too old to be considered valid.  I immediately eliminated any mock drafts that were done prior to the Super Bowl.  Afterall, how good could a mock draft be if it didn’t even reflect the correct draft order?  Additionally, I eliminated all of the mock drafts that had broken links.  Lastly, Walter Football’s database includes several mock drafts that are clearly intended to be jokes.  Those were also eliminated from my analysis.

Once I had eliminated all of the mock drafts that I considered to be invalid, I was left with 189 mock drafts.  Those 189 mock drafts were the basis for this analysis.  It was a lot of work compiling 189 mock drafts, so I stopped at the 1st round.  Here is what the mock drafts think the Steelers are going to do in the 1st round of Saturday’s draft.

By far, offensive line was the position that the mock drafts thought the Steelers were going to select in the first round of the draft.  126 mock drafts (66.7%) had the Steelers taking an offensive lineman in the first round.  Defensive back got the next highest number of votes with 33 mock drafts (17.5%) predicting that the Steelers would take a DB.

Here is the breakdown by position:

Position/# of votes/% of votes
Offensive line/126/66.7%

Defensive back/33/17.5%

Defensive line/21/11.1%

Wide receiver/7/3.7%

Running back/2/1.1%

Four of the top 5 vote getters were offensive linemen.  This should come as no surprise, given the problems the Steelers’ offensive line had this past year.  The top vote-getters were as follows:

Name/position/# of votes/% of votes
Alex Mack/OL/52/27.5%

Max Unger/OL/22/11.6%

Eben Britton/OL/18/9.5%

Sean Smith/DB/9/4.8%

William Beatty/OL/9/4.8%

Alphonso Smith/DB/7/3.7%

Jarron Gilbert/DL/7/3.7%

Vontae Davis/DB/5/2.6%

D.J. Moore/DB/5/2.6%

Eric Wood/OL/5/2.6%

Darius Butler/DB/4/2.1%

Tyson Jackson/DL/4/2.1%

Phil Loadholt/OL/4/2.1%

Robert Ayers/DL/3/1.6%

Hakeem Nicks/WR/3/1.6%

Fili Moala/DL/2/1.1%

Michael Johnson/DL/2/1.1%

Evander Hood/DL/2/1.1%

Kenny Britt/WR/2/1.1%

William Moore/DB/1/0.5%

Patrick Chung/DB/1/0.5%

Louis Delmas/DB/1/0.5%

Ron Brace/DL/1/0.5%

Troy Kropog/OL/1/0.5%

Jamon Meredith/OL/1/0.5%

Lesean McCoy/RB/1/0.5%

Beanie Wells/RB/1/0.5%

Percy Harvin/WR/1/0.5%

Darius Heyward-Bey/WR/1/0.5%

While 2 mock drafts had the Steelers taking a running back in the first round, I just can’t see that happening.  Rashard Mendenhall was drafted in the first round last year, and the Steelers are very solid at running back with Willie Parker, Rashard Mendenhall, and Mewelde Moore.

In my opinion, all of the other positions that received votes are a possibility.  We all know that the Steelers aren’t going to draft a quarterback or tight end in the first round, regardless of who is available.  We also know that they aren’t going to draft a special teams player (unless it is a wide receiver who also returns kicks or punts).  Beyond this, nobody knows what the Steelers will do.

I have learned over the years that trying to predict who the Steelers are going to draft is nearly impossible.  They play their cards very close to the vest, and they almost never do what fans expect them to do.  Nevertheless, I hope that this analysis may have added some insight into what we are likely to see on Saturday.

Go Steelers!!!!!!

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February 17, 2009
By Donald Starver

I was talking to a friend about the Steelers’ awesome 2008 season, and suddenly he came to a shocking realization.  It occurred to him that winning the Super Bowl means that the Steelers now get the honor and privilege of picking 32nd in the upcoming draft.  That’s dead last.  I could see the look of horror cover his face as comprehension set in.

Firstly, it amazed me that any true sports fan could be unaware of that particular ramification of winning the Super Bowl.  It’s the booby prize that comes with the Lombardi Trophy.   The two are intrinsically linked.  It’s kind of like that pesky burning and itching feeling that you get after a night of sex with Paris Hilton; you can’t have one without the other.

But I digress.

So after he realized that every team in the NFL gets to select before the Steelers FINALLY get to pick, my friend proceeded to whine about how unfair that is, and how the Steelers are totally screwed.  I was quick to remind him that it’s actually a pretty fair trade-off for trophy #6.  Ask any team which they’d rather have, the #1 pick in the draft or a Super Bowl championship.  I’m sure the answer will be unanimous.

But to further put him at ease, I reminded him that the Detroit Lions, Cincinnati Bengals, and Oakland Raiders always seem to have top 5 draft positions.  Yet despite getting their pick of the best young talent available, they continue to suck year after year.  Meanwhile, teams like the Steelers, New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers, and Philadelphia Eagles seem to pick in the second half of the draft each year, and yet they remain perennial playoff teams.  So there is more to winning than just having a top 10 draft position.

There will be plenty of good talent available at pick #32.  In fact, the Steelers will probably have their pick from among some of the top interior offensive linemen available, should they choose to go that way.

Here are some recent 32nd picks, along with the team that made the pick.  I’m also including in parentheses a few of the players that were drafted immediately after  pick #32.

2008 – Patriots forfeited pick so Giants select Kenny Philips 31st (Philip Merling was selected next).

2007 – Colts select Anthony Gonzalez (Alan Branch, Paul Posluszny).

2006 – Giants chose Mathias Kiwanuka (DeMeco Ryans).

2005 – Patriots chose Logan Mankins (Brodney Poole, Lofa Tatupu).

2004 – Patriots chose Ben Watson (Karlos Dansby, Chris Snee).

2003 – Raiders select Tyler Brayton (Eric Steinbach, Boss Bailey).

2002 – Redskins picked Patrick Ramsey (Jabbar Gafney, DeShaun Foster).

2001 – Ravens select Todd Heap (Drew Brees, Alge Crumpler, Chad Johnson)

So as you can see, some very good players have been chosen at pick #32.  Moreover, there is usually very good talent available even after the 32nd pick.

We all know that the Steelers had several starters on their Super Bowl championship team that weren’t even drafted.  James Harrison, Willie Parker, and Darnell Stapleton were all undrafted free agents.  That’s proof that good talent can be found, even after “Mr. Irrelevant” comes off the draft board.

So fret not, Steeler Nation.  Picking last is a small price to pay for winning the Super Bowl.  Kevin Colbert is very good at what he does.  He’ll get the Steelers what they need, even if he has to trade down to get it (remember the trades he made to get Troy Polamalu and Santonio Holmes?).

So if you find yourself feeling down because of the Steelers’ draft position, just remember that we could be picking first, like the Detroit Lions.  That would REALLY suck.

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