Reviewing the 2017 Pittsburgh Steelers Draft: Part 1
The dust has settled from the 2017 NFL Draft. After weeks and months, of speculation, one of the biggest events of pro football’s offseason has come to a close.
Now it’s time to evaluate how teams fared in improving their rosters for a shot at the game’s ultimate prize. However, it’s a bit silly to “grade” these draft picks when the players themselves haven’t set foot on a field with their new teams. (Heck, I’m not even a betting man, so that’s something I don’t want to get near, though there’s an excellent guide on football betting you can visit if that’s your sort of thing!)
Therefore, I waited an extra day, then decided to review each of the Steelers draft picks by giving two “grades” for each selection. For those who remember the old TV Guide magazine’s “cheers and jeers” section, I will give a “cheer” (positive) and a “jeer” (negative) for each pick.
T.J. Watt – OLB (Wisconsin)
Round 1, Pick 30 (No. 30 overall)
Cheers
The Steelers had to address their pass rush. Bud Dupree is a pick who paid off in 2015, but Jarvis Jones selected two years earlier, never panned out and left town via free agency. Aside from Dupree, there’s James Harrison, who will be 39 years old this season. He obviously cannot play forever. The remaining outside linebackers are Arthur Moats and Anthony Chickillo. Both logged time last season, but never became full-time starters. Currently, both are only signed through the 2017 season.
Watt comes from a family of football players, headlined by his brother J.J. Watt (who is a year removed from winning the league’s Defensive MVP Award). That pedigree alone may have pushed him into the first round, but it was also his 2016 season at Wisconsin which opened eyes.
Watt promises to become the next great Steelers linebacker. With those mentioned above, he will have time to grow into that position.
Jeers
The hype around Watt comes mostly from his last name and that big year with the Badgers. He had 11.5 sacks in 14 games, but only played two collegiate seasons due to a series of knee injuries. Worse, those injuries occurred to each knee/leg and was even reported as being “genetic”.
Ouch.
Conclusion
Watt moved from tight end to linebacker due to the injuries, nearly missing three entire years before getting on the field in 2015. Hopefully he has a clean health check by the team physicians, and remains injury-free in the future. He has a ton of upside and appeared to be the best pass rusher left on the board who could be a day one contributor.
Therefore it’s hard to argue the selection, when other edge rushers were either small college prospects (Derek Rivers) or had current injuries to deal with which would make them miss time in 2017 (Takkarist McKinley, Carl Lawson).
JuJu Smith-Schuster – WR (USC)
Round 2, Pick 30 (No. 62)
Cheers
The question I asked fans heading into the draft is this: “Will the pick help the Steelers beat the Patriots?”
Considering the amount of griping over not having “help” for Antonio Brown (who was double and triple teamed in the AFC Championship game) I’m shocked at the griping over this pick!
Fans were upset because the Steelers already have a stable of receiver: Brown, Eli Rogers, Sammie Coates, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Demarcus Ayers, Cobi Hamilton, free agent addition Justin Hunter and the recently reinstated Martavis Bryant.
With the exception of Brown and Rogers, I’d argue the remaining names are all unreliable for one reason or another. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting the same result.
Going into the 2017 season expecting Bryant to play 16 games, Coates or DHB to be healthy, Ayers or Hamilton to be more than practice squad players or Hunter to become a player he’s never been in his pro career and expecting a different result against the league’s top teams, is inviting that very madness back for another season.
Smith-Schuster represents a weapon the Steelers don’t already have: a possession receiver who makes combats catches, and an aggressive run blocker in the vein of Hines Ward.
Pittsburgh passed on taking a tight end, but with JuJu on the field, he could add a different dynamic than a second tight end on the field.
Jeers
Wasn’t there another position the Steelers needed besides a receiver?
This appeared to be the position of least priority, yet was the franchise’s second pick of the draft.
Pittsburgh could have managed with the receivers already on the roster, and maybe added another defender to their roster. However, my educated guess is that the few picks made ahead of Smith-Schuster solidified the USC receiver as the “best available” on the Steelers draft board.
Several of the safeties who were scouted by the Steelers came off of the board in the second round. However, the team could have added another inside linebacker to help shore up the loss of Lawrence Timmons.
As for corners, the players they were targeting landed in the next round anyway.
Conclusion
Smith-Schuster adds another dynamic to the Steelers offense. Though they didn’t add to their tight end depth, they didn’t have to following this pick. Hopefully JuJu can restore order to what has been a chaotic receiver corps as of late.
Cameron Sutton – CB (Tennessee)
Round 3, Pick 30 (No. 94)
Cheers
Sutton represents another attempt to fix what had been a porous Steelers secondary. His NFL.com draft profile describes him as “B.W. Webb” but we’re hoping for better following a prestigious college career where the Tennessee product broke up passes and create turnovers.
Sutton will compete to play outside or inside: Ross Cockrell was a restricted free agent who was tendered and brought back. William Gay appears to be on the backend of his career, and no one knows who or what Senquez Golson is after missing the last two season with injuries.
Artie Burns and Coty Sensabaugh round out the rest of the roster, leaving a crowded field where Sutton could push for playing time in the near future.
Jeers
Some may have asked “why not earlier” with a cornerback pick? That’s the only knock I can really find on Sutton, aside from some smaller injuries in college which should be of no more concern than the same type of injuries in the pros (because Golson was never injured in college, but has been his entire NFL career, for example).
He’s also a smaller cornerback (5’11”) and isn’t considered to be a strong zone player… which won’t matter if the Steelers transition to more press coverage… but a potential liability if they do not.
Conclusion
Sutton fits the smaller prototype cornerback the Steelers seek. He should find a role by midseason in the subpackages requiring an extra defensive back, granted he doesn’t enter games early due to injuries to other players, or wins the starting job outright in camp.
James Conner – RB (Pittsburgh)
Round 3, Pick 41 (No. 105)
Cheers
Everyone in the Steel City is familiar with Conner’s comeback story, and seeing him drafted by the Steelers continues his Cinderella story.
Riding Le’Veon Bell hard for the last few seasons has made his wheels fall off every time. DeAngelo Williams was a great compliment to Bell but had also struggled to stay healthy at times. The aging running back was not re-signed this offseason, leaving a hole behind Bell. Part of the backup duties was acknowledged with the signing of former Kanas City running back Knile Davis, but many felt the Steelers still needed another dependable body on the roster.
Enter Conner, who fought back from a gruesome knee injury and a bout with cancer to enter the NFL. His running style is more thunder to Bell’s lightning but gives the Steelers offense yet another dynamic it has not had in years.
Jeers
Was taking Conner in the third round a reach?
Most of the Steelers picks appear to have been made “too early”. The reason for this is simple: they were picking extremely late in each round. You may as well call the Watt pick a second rounder, Smith-Schuster a third and Conner a fourth rounder, based on how close to those rounds they were.
Assigning the new round numbers might alleviate some concerns over drafting these players earlier than where some draft analysts graded them.
Another complaint about Conner is that, like Watt, this may have been a sympathy pick. Conner’s story is a great one, and since he played at Pitt, oftentimes those players would intermingle with the Steelers. They were familiar with one another, but just how familiar?
Hopefully, it’s the better kind. But I believe that even though Conner had a tough past, that is now behind him. He has a chance to carve out his own niche at the next level.
Conclusion
Conner was the back the Steelers needed, even if he wasn’t the one they truly wanted (which I highly doubt, based on the reaction of players and personnel). He’ll add a goal line back to the roster, who is capable of gaining chunks of yards in short yardage situations.
Stay Tuned
Part two will detail the selections of a quarterback, and extra picks at two other positions of need. Plus a questionable day three draft choice!
