fester
Third String But Playing on Special Teams
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2005
- Messages
- 528
- Reaction score
- 85
I'm a Patriots fan living in Pittsburgh, so I have had a good decade as my #1 and #2 teams have won half the Super Bowls and been in 70% of them. One of the common themes I see on the Patsfans draft board is the wish that the Patriots drafted like the Steelers. The Steelers evidently have a pipeline for excellent defensive and offensive talent that the Patriots don't have and the Pats are saved only by the brilliance of TFB.
I don't think the evidence really supports this view. Looking back at the Steelers draft since 2007 does not support this view. 18 of the 42 Steelers' draft picks are not on the 2011 team. One of those players (TE Spaeth) was a valuable 2nd TE who signed a FA contract elsewhere after his rookie deal was up. There was one notable 2nd round bust (WR Sweed) and another questionable second round pick (OLB Worilds).
The Steelers found two elite players (Wallace and Woodley) and three significantly above league average players (Mendenhall, Timmons and Pouncey). Beyond that, there are a lot of rotation players and injury replacement starters as well as 2011 rookies who have not yet cast their long term role. One first rounder (Hood) is in a prove-it year as he had not been able to displace the two old vets from their starting roles in his first two years.
Compared to the Pats, the Steelers look like they concentrate their draft ammo elsewhere (LB and D-line most ntoably) while ignoring their O-line. Both teams take multiple swings and mostly miss on drafting secondary players. The Steelers are better at drafting wide receivers (Wallace, Sanders and Brown are all legit NFL receivers or better). The Pats draft O-line more frequently and seemingly better than the Steelers, and have invested more TE resources.
The big difference is the sheer number of top picks. The Steelers drafted in this period 9 first or second rounders. That is the same number of Top-64 picks as the Patriots drafted in the past two years.
I don't think the evidence really supports this view. Looking back at the Steelers draft since 2007 does not support this view. 18 of the 42 Steelers' draft picks are not on the 2011 team. One of those players (TE Spaeth) was a valuable 2nd TE who signed a FA contract elsewhere after his rookie deal was up. There was one notable 2nd round bust (WR Sweed) and another questionable second round pick (OLB Worilds).
The Steelers found two elite players (Wallace and Woodley) and three significantly above league average players (Mendenhall, Timmons and Pouncey). Beyond that, there are a lot of rotation players and injury replacement starters as well as 2011 rookies who have not yet cast their long term role. One first rounder (Hood) is in a prove-it year as he had not been able to displace the two old vets from their starting roles in his first two years.
Compared to the Pats, the Steelers look like they concentrate their draft ammo elsewhere (LB and D-line most ntoably) while ignoring their O-line. Both teams take multiple swings and mostly miss on drafting secondary players. The Steelers are better at drafting wide receivers (Wallace, Sanders and Brown are all legit NFL receivers or better). The Pats draft O-line more frequently and seemingly better than the Steelers, and have invested more TE resources.
The big difference is the sheer number of top picks. The Steelers drafted in this period 9 first or second rounders. That is the same number of Top-64 picks as the Patriots drafted in the past two years.