upstater1
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The thing about these numbers is that there was a time in the first 10 years that the Patriots drafted WRs at the same rate as the Steelers.Why are the Steelers better at drafting WR's than the Pats? I had some time to kill and I'm tired of hearing about of hearing this debate, so here you go:
Since 2000, the Steelers have drafted 25 WR's to the Pats 18 (I eliminated Slater). Yes, Edelman counts.
60% of the Steelers picks to WR's have been in rounds 1-3 to 44% of the Patriots. That comes out to 15 players from rounds 1-3 for the Steelers to 8 from the Pats. That's almost twice as many picks in rounds 1-3 for the Steelers.
Out of 23 drafts, 82% of their drafts the Steelers took at least one WR to the Pats 60%.
The average round when the Steelers took a WR was 4.89 to the Pats 5.9.
So there you have it, this is why the Steelers have had more success than the Pats - the Steelers just try harder. On the flip side, the Steelers have drafted quite of few of DB's and they haven't hit on ONE aside from Polamalu.
We hit on Deion Branch but failed with Bethel Johnson and Chad Jackson.
The one thing the Patriots do is constantly draft WRs in the 6th and 7th, at a much greater rate than the Steelers do, whether we're talking about David Givens, Braxton Berrios, Julian Edelman or Jeremy Ebert!
My concern is really the last 10 years when the Patriots have given up on drafting WRs in the 1st 3 rounds, while the Steelers have done it more than any other team in the NFL.