Home 2014 NFL Draft Steelers Prospect Watch: Louis Nix III

Steelers Prospect Watch: Louis Nix III

by Steelbydesign

NCAA Football: Purdue at Notre DameIf you’re a fan of internet mock drafts (and who isn’t?!) then you’re well aware of Louis Nix III out of Notre Dame.

The people continuously mocking “LN3” (doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like RG3) to the Steelers are the same people that don’t follow the Steelers, and like to tell me that they’re a power running team.

I’ve come to learn people that don’t follow the team still have this image of the Steelers squads built under Bill Cowher.

Casey Hampton was a Bill Cowher guy, so naturally Nix is a perfect fit for the Steelers defense!

I had a somewhat lengthy conversation via twitter yesterday about Nix with fellow Steel City Blitz writer, SteelDad, and Neal Coolong of Behind the Steel Curtain.

We were all in agreement that we wouldn’t be fans of Nix, which SteelDad wrote over a month ago. We also all felt that the Steelers won’t go that direction in round 1.

Let me start by saying I don’t hate Nix as a prospect. I think Nix has a lot of the same qualities as Casey Hampton, who is one of the unheralded players on the Bill Cowher era.

Nix weighs in at somewhere around 330-350 pounds, and can actually move pretty well for a guy that size. At worst, Nix is a guy no man is going to move off a spot.

Bringing in Nix would move the smaller McLendon over to DE, where he can use his pass rush skills to push the pocket, and give Pittsburgh two serious pass rush threats from the end position.

However, I don’t think that the NT spot was the problem last season for our run defense, and Nix is a two down player.

Ten years ago I’d say let’s grab Nix and be a dominant run defending team (which we were with Hampton), but in today’s NFL I’m ok with giving up some muscle inside if it means grabbing a better LB or DB.

On top of that, Nix had knee surgery in November. With men the size of Nix, one of the only ways to bring him down is to go for the knees… Which we saw with Casey Hampton. Without those knee issues Casey may have played a couple more seasons in the NFL.

I’m not sure I want to spend a top 15 pick on a guy with a bad knee, especially when that knee is holding up a 350 pound man.

I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see Nix take a tumble on draft day. This time last year plenty of people were mocking Jonathan Hankins to the Steelers at the 17th pick. Hankins ended up being selected one pick after the Steelers… in round 2.

If Nix ends up there in the second round, then you might be able to talk me into taking a shot on him…

Even then though, as we saw in last year’s draft with Eddie Lacy, the Steelers won’t pick a guy if they have medical concerns.

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1 comment

Wayne February 21, 2014 - 6:01 pm

I too think that he will fall, possibly to the second round but when I said that before I was crucified for it….LOL

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