With the Pittsburgh Steelers poised to take either an outside linebacker or cornerback in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft, I figured it was a good time to re-visit similar selections during Mike Tomlin’s time as head coach.
The most commonly known stat with regards to corners and Mike Tomlin is that the Steelers have never drafted one in the first two rounds of the draft. Conversely, the team has selected three outside linebackers in the first two rounds over that same period.
Obviously Mike Tomlin does not carry all of the blame when it comes to the decisions of these positions in the draft but he must carry some of the responsibility.
The cornerback position not only has issues of depth but also of poor selections. For every Keenan Lewis pick there was a Curtis Brown, Terrence Frederick and Terry Hawthorne. That’s not a good ratio. With Cortez Allen making very good money, he is on the cusp of becoming a huge mistake if he doesn’t improve his play drastically in 2015.
With Dick LeBeau out and Keith Butler in, we have to assume there will be different approaches taken to some of the potential draft picks.
Does this mean the run of no corners in the first two rounds ends? Does it mean a different type of outside backer is wanted?
The answer to both of those questions has to be “yes.” The Steelers cannot rely on the same model they’ve been using in recent drafts and that goes for more than just the cornerback and outside line backing positions.
Take a look at the list of guys drafted under Tomlin and tell me change in the drafting paradigm isn’t needed.
Linebackers
2007 – Lawrence Timmons, LaMarr Woodley
2008 – Bruce Davis, Mike Humpal
2009 – None selected
2010 – Jason Worilds, Thaddeus Gibson, Stevenson Sylvester
2011 – Chris Carter
2012 – Sean Spence
2013 – Jarvis Jones, Vince Williams
2014 – Ryan Shazier, Jordan Zumwalt
Cornerbacks
2007 – William Gay
2008 – None Selected
2009 – Keenan Lewis, Joe Burnett
2010 – Crezdon Butler
2011 – Curtis Brown, Cortez Allen
2012 – Terrence Frederick
2013 – Terry Hawthorne
2014 – Shaquille Richardson
Like most NFL teams, the Steelers have more misses than hits. This is the nature of the beast, but the Steelers misses have been like a slugger whiffing on a beach ball.
For all any of us know the draft may unfold in a manner where neither position looks good, but as of right now doesn’t appear that way. The Steelers need a home run here and a tape-measure shot would be really nice.
4 comments
When i look at the Steeler LB’s, I see the need for one of the MLB to slide outside. This would put the best talent on the field. Maybe some thing like LOLB, Timmons, LILB, Spence, RILB, Shazier, now here’s the problem ROLB, jones or Moats or best LB drafted.
I’m not sure why so many people think just moving positions is a solution. Lawrence Timmons is probably 1 of 2 defenders on this defense that’s in his prime and playing well. He just made the pro bowl as an inside linebacker, and we’ve even had the luxury of seeing what he can do on the outside for half a season and he stunk there!
Why would you want to potentially weaken 2 positions by moving Timmons?
I think Tomlin wanted to make adjustments to LeBeau’s Defense with faster OLB’s but conceded to the Legond. If you look at the corners drafted you can see Tomlin likes some small scrappy Corners. He loved Joe Burnett then Joe went in the dog house. I also think LeBeau trust his Veterans CB.
I hope we draft several CB, Safeties & hybrid Cb/fs.
As far as moving one of our current ILB to OLB I vote for Shazier because he has the speed to get around the edges. I’d stack him with Vince Williams so Williams responsibility is the run and Shazier is to cover or attack.
Time for Butler to Mix it up and run a Hybrid front. With that being said I can see drafting Malcolm Brown in Rd 1