Steelers select WR Toney Clemons in 7th round
With the 231st pick of the 2012 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Toney Clemons, a WR from Colorado.
Clemons is a Pittsburgh native who is probably happy to be coming home.
He started his career at the University of Michigan, and played there for 2 years before transferring to Colorado, where he finished his collegiate career.
As a senior at Colorado, he was named by the coaches as the winner of Colorado’s John Mack Award, given to the team’s most outstanding offensive player.
Toney Clemons
Steelers fans know that Ben Roethlisberger likes big receivers, and none of the Steelers’ current receivers fit that description. But Toney Clemons will be a move in that direction. Clemons is 6’2″ tall. That makes him the tallest wide receiver on the Steelers roster.
Clemons is a big, physical wide receiver who isn’t afraid to go across the middle. Because of his size, Clemons is adept at muscling cornerbacks and breaking tackles. He’s also been known to run over a few cornerbacks and safeties. Moreover, he’s a very physical blocker, which is sure to go over well with Steelers fans.
He’s not particularly fast in game situations. So don’t believe the hype that you’ve probably been reading on other sites about how fast he is. While he did run a fast time (4.36) at his pro day, he was never able to perform at that speed during games . In fact, he didn’t excel at getting separation from his defenders, and he only scored 11 touchdowns during his entire college career. Instead, he used his size and strength to beat his man. That’s why his style of play is most often compared to Anquan Boldin.
We’ve already got Mike Wallace to take the top off of the defense, so I don’t think that Big Ben will mind having a receiver who is better at fighting off defenders than he is at blowing by them.
Welcome to the Steelers, kid. You’re joining a talented group of receivers. It’s going to take a lot of work to earn playing time.
