Easy pick: DeCastro falls to Steelers
The Steelers were tremendously excited that guard David DeCastro fell to them at the 24th pick of the NFL draft Thursday night.
DeCastro tried to hide it, but he was obviously less excited about the fall.
“It was surreal,” DeCastro said. “I was just really excited. I was kind of stunned. I was just excited to be on a team.”
Considered by many the best guard available in this draft, DeCastro had higher hopes than the 24th pick. But he will soon find out he couldn’t have fallen to a better place than Heinz Field and the Steelers.
Go ahead and pencil him in as a starting guard right now. He’s that good and the Steelers have an obvious need at the position.
Left or right? It doesn’t matter.
“He played on the right side at Stanford,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “We are going to work to put our best people on the field and he will be candidate within that group, obviously. Everything we would ask him to do here, we saw him do at Stanford, whether it was pulling or the pass-pro in the play-action game.”
DeCastro played in a pro style offense at Stanford, which will help him make the adjustment to the NFL. At least he hopes it will help.
“I think there are a lot of differences, too, starting with the athletic ability and how much technique is used in the professional game,” DeCastro said. “We had some great coaches and a great strength staff at Stanford. They pushed us to work really hard. I think they made us ready for the NFL.”
In the process, DeCastro showed the Steelers plenty.
“The intangibles are obvious,” Tomlin said of the 6-5, 316-pound DeCastro. “He is the unquestioned leader of a very veteran group from a college football standpoint. The guy has great football character and we’re excited about putting him into the fold.”
“A lot of their run game went behind him,” Tomlin said. “He made it a fun study. he is just a solid football player and prospect in all areas.”
“He’s great in the line of scrimmage,” general manager Kevin Colbert said. “He can pull, he can trap, he is a solid pass protector. Really, the kid’s good.”
So good, in fact, that the Steelers entertained thoughts of trading up to get him, once DeCastro began falling through the teens.
“Before the draft, we identified several players that we’d trade up to get and he was one of them,” Colbert said. “I’ll leave it at that. With every pick the odds increase. When we picked there was a nice group. We would have been happy with three or four guys that were available at our pick.
“Really, a better group presented itself than we thought would, but he was one that we identified as possible to trade up to get.”
Instead of going up to get DeCastro, a move that would have cost the Steelers their third-round pick, they were able to sit tight, get the player they wanted and hold onto that pick in the third round as well.
All that does is set up the rest of the weekend for the Steelers.
Suffice to say, by drafting DeCastro, they are off to a great start.