Steelers reel in strong class
The 2018 draft for the Steelers opened with one of the great scenes of our lifetimes when Ryan Shazier walked out to the podium to announce their first-round pick.
He was helped by his fiancee, Michelle, and he at times struggled.
But this was no scene out of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt presidency. While we couldn’t help but wonder about some of the recent pictures of Ryan standing, this was a sure sign for everyone to see that Shazier is coming around.
Ryan brought the house down, and there could be no scene to top it. But there were two that I want to share in order to define my feelings about the rest of the Steelers’ draft.
Scene 1
Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert were sitting at the front table of the media room at UPMC Rooney Complex. They were telling reporters about their surprising first-round pick, safety Terrell Edmunds.
Rather, Colbert was talking and the quiet Tomlin turned to his left to watch a muted TV screen that carried live pictures of Baltimore Ravens officials embracing new quarterback Lamar Jackson.
He was the 32nd pick of the draft, four picks after the Steelers took Edmunds.
The Steelers had passed on Jackson, and if you read my pre-draft work you know I’m a Jackson fan. I figured he would be gone long before pick 28, but I was happy to settle on Mason Rudolph for my preferred Steelers pick.
But the Steelers passed on Jackson, and here was a bored Tomlin staring up at the TV as if he was worried about what the future might hold against the Ravens.
A bored Tomlin?
Well, that’s what he said when asked to comment on what he was watching. He waved it off and acted like he didn’t care, that we were just too boring for him.
It was funny heh, but not funny ha, and the press conference ended with that answer.
Out walked the brass and their PR associates; up to the table walked the media to collect their digital recorders. But back into the room walked Tomlin.
“Hey, how did Baltimore trade back into the first round?” he asked of all.
No one knew.
But at that moment we all knew that Tomlin actually did care. Jackson going to Baltimore meant something to him.
I thought at the time the image of Tomlin watching it unfold, after passing on Jackson, would remain locked in my mind for the next decade or so.
Scene 2
Reporters normally walk down a flight of stairs and into the cafeteria to guzzle our gallons of coffee, but on draft weekend the Steelers set up a coffee table outside the media room. Across the lobby is a bigger table which housed a radio station covering the draft. Often coffee drinkers can hear snippets of cockamamy conspiracy theories, but this scene involved the criticism of the Steelers’ third-round pick, the aforementioned Rudolph.
I was happy with the pick, even though it was made 49 picks after I should’ve been made. But the fans? No, they were bemoaning the alleged closing of the “two-year window” remaining on Ben Roethlisberger’s career.
But I think Rudolph can turn that two-year window into a 15-year window. Yes, the Steelers need to bolster defensive holes, but they’re not going to reach and make even bigger problems.
Once those four inside linebackers were gone in the first round, with them went anyone with a reasonable chance of beating out Vince Williams for a starting job.
Again, you can’t replace Shazier. He was not only the 15th pick of a first round, he was drafted to replace Williams as Williams was entering his second season, not his sixth. And last year Williams compiled eight sacks, the most by a Steelers inside linebacker in the last 16 seasons.
Yes, Williams had trouble pulling it all together as the hub of communications once Shazier went down, but free agent Jon Bostic specializes in communication. He and the other free agent signing, Morgan Burnett, have significantly upgraded the middle of the field already. No third-round rookie was going to help much there.
But the radio personality at the mike wasn’t having any of it. He was lambasting the selection of Rudolph because, he said, Roethlisberger needs help not a backup. And then the radio personality/columnist said, “We’re going to be here at the same time next year talking about the very same thing.”
That’s when it struck me: This is the same man — a close friend — who had lambasted the drafting Roethlisberger in a column 14 years ago because he felt the Steelers needed a starting offensive guard to get back to the playoffs, and not a QB project. I believe his line back then was, “Same time next year, fellas?”
It was then that I knew the drafting of Rudolph was a great move, and may have saved that first scene from becoming a decades-long mind burn.
Take 1
I think it was a solid draft by the Steelers, particularly if the first-round pick comes around. But what first-round pick was going to come around?
That was a difficult question before the draft. I was right in thinking the top four inside linebackers would be gone by pick 28, but I truly was unsure of which defensive player to draft.
Rudolph was my personal choice, but I flip-flopped on which standout safety I would predict the Steelers would choose.
In the first prediction, sent to the Herald-Standard, I predicted Jessie Bates. He really didn’t stand out as a first-round impact player on tape, but he was the best center fielder and I thought that’s what the Steelers wanted.
After sleeping on it, I changed my mind for a column in SteelCityInsider.net, where I predicted the Steelers would draft Justin Reid in the first round.
I’ve confessed several times to my SCI readers that I initially gave Reid a third-round grade. I also confessed to going along with the flow of analysts who considered Reid a late first-round pick, and so that became my final prediction.
Am I supposed to get upset when the Steelers chose another safety? After I couldn’t even make a firm prediction on one myself?
No. I watched Edmunds play only one game, which he left with an injury. I wasn’t impressed. In fact, the only reason I remembered him at all was that his coach was quoted as calling Edmunds the best player on the Virginia Tech team. They weren’t talking about his brother, either.
Throw in the fact that Edmunds played injured all season, and then ran a 4.47 NFL Combine 40 with incredible jumps (that indicate explosiveness), and also the fact that he’s a complete football jock from a caring and loving football family, and I’m starting to understand why the Steelers like him.
Trade down and draft him later?
Again, no. Just because analysts who have zero vision on what the Steelers want to do with their third safety in sub-packages, and where and behind whom they wish to groom Edmunds, doesn’t mean he’s actually a third, fourth or fifth-rounder.
What if someone else saw in him what Tomlin sees, and nabbed him? Do they then get stuck with the safeties Jim Wexell likes?
With all due respect to myself, of course not. I’ll trust the Steelers to pluck from the safety group what was so difficult for me to do even without my job being at risk.
The pick of James Washington, though, was right in my wheelhouse. I, like so many who’ve watched Pitt over the years, was fascinated by Washington. I thought he was the best deep threat in the draft — until of course the Combine when his 4.54 40 and his 5-11 height started knocking him back. It even played tricks with my mind.
But have you ever known the Steelers to fear times and measurements in a guy they like?
Once again, no. Oh, you can point to Jarvis Jones, but Jarvis didn’t play wide receiver amd Colbert doesn’t miss on receivers. I’ll trust him with a guy I thought was the best in the country while the games were being played.
Bonus scene
Rudolph called the media room for his conference-call interview. We gathered around a table and Rudolph said hello in a voice that sounded exactly like Roethlisberger’s. His southern accent became perceptible later, but his introduction caused me to ask if anyone had ever told him he sounded like Roethlisberger.
Rudolph said, “No, I have not heard that. No, sir.” And I said, “Well, the ‘sir’ part just ruined it.”
The room exploded with laughter, with Rudolph wondering if in the first five seconds of his Pittsburgh career he had somehow insulted his Hall of Fame-bound predecessor.
I assured him it was an inside joke, and the rest of the howling reporters knew it was a stretch, that Roethlisberger is often quite polite. Still, it was funny.
But Rudolph wasn’t.
And he wasn’t trying to be. He was in fact furious that he fell to the middle of the third round. He tried to restrain his anger, because he sure didn’t want to make news before even showing up in Pittsburgh, but the chip on his shoulder became obvious.
I’ve written scads of material on what I like about him. And the knocks from others are vague: “one read,” “small hands,” “systems QB.” I wonder if people are actually seeing the battleship-sized pocket passer with a mobility that belies his 84 career sacks (OL crisis at OSU), who can throw with accuracy, and who plays with experience and poise.
Rudolph hails from Rock City, South Carolina, an NFL football breeding ground. He started four years at OSU and he’s coming here with his “go-to” receiver. What’s not to like about this pick?
And remember, Roethlisberger might play three or four more years, as he stated, but he might not. Also remember that Roethlisberger wanted to spike the ball on third down near the goal line, down three, against the Patriots. He was talked/yelled out of it and then threw an interception.
Of course, the fans blamed everyone but him.
I’m not saying Roethlisberger cost the Steelers the game and the season. I’m saying fans need to stop blaming the coach and the coordinator and the defense and whatever else people blame and realize that just because a coach has Roethlisberger doesn’t mean a Super Bowl should be imminent. He needs to be held accountable, too.
Take 2
As for Rudolph, the Steelers traded an early seventh-round pick to jump the Bengals, whom they heard were going to draft Rudolph.
The Steelers had a first-round grade on Rudolph for the reasons cited above, and they also love his psychological grades, particularly the very high grade he posted for resiliency.
Then there’s his work ethic and the serious approach he takes to the game. The guy’s a film geek — although geek might not be the right word for a guy who no doubt will become a Pittsburgh hearthrob.
After Rudolph, the Steelers had to get back to defense, right?
No. They drafted offensive tackle Chuks Okorafor, who’s 6-6, 320, with long 34 1/2-inch arms, a fluid knee-bender. He’s raw, and needs to get stronger, but that sounds like the Mike Munchak prescription for guys he’s drafted his entire coaching career.
Okorafor played left tackle at Western Michigan and will learn both spots with the Steelers because they lost backup swing tackle Chris Hubbard. The pick also ended a five-year stretch without using a premium pick (1-3) on the offensive line. The last time the Steelers had such a stretch, the sickening ’60s happened.
The Steelers say they couldn’t ignore their board with Okorafor, and I know of one board, analyst Kyle Crabbs’, that had Okorafor 12th overall in the draft.
“He was an easy, easy decision,” said Colbert.
The Steelers came away with two of my favorite players in the fifth round, Marcus Allen and Jaylen Samuels.
I had been writing about the hard-hitting Allen as a safety-linebacker hybrid since the end of the college season, but had kept quiet about Samuels because I saw no need for a 5-11 tight end.
When I did watch Samuels at N.C. State, I marveled at how this short-yardage runner could get outside and make people miss around the corner and down the field.
Sure enough, the Steelers drafted him as a running back and the comparison to old Ohio State/Philadelphia Eagles star Keith Byars struck me right away.
The final pick, NT Joshua Frazier, was a five-star recruit out of high school who got lost in the five-star shuffle at Alabama. He’s a nose tackle, after all, and even in college the snap counts at that position are shrinking. The hook here is that the Steelers’ new DL coach, Karl Dunbar, coached Frazier, so even if I don’t know anything about him, his coach sure does.
That’s thematic of what I’m trying to say here today. Not that I’m the kind who’ll love the Steelers’ picks just because they were made by the Steelers, but it’s clear even by their free-agent list that they did all of their due diligence and came away not only with stars but strong character. And in the past, that’s been a sign of a strong draft class.