Kevin Colbert should be fired

Well said father of twins.

All of the top shelf offensive talent, plus one first round reach (Sam Baker) were gone by the 23rd pick.  I was surprised that Rarshard Mendenhall dropped to the Steelers.  If he was the highest rated player on their board, you stick to your board and draft the best player.  Going off your  board and reaching for needs is what gets teams in trouble.   I am mildly disappointed in two choices, Dennis Dixon and the linebacker out of Iowa.  Dixon is a project who may have a future in certain specialty (spread option) packages Arians may implement.  Think about it, both Dixon and Mendenhall played their  college ball in a spread option offense.  Put them both in the backfield in certain specialty situations (third and short, goal line) and see what happens.  It could be fun.  Limas Sweed was a steal in the second round.  Ben Roethlisberger will love him.  Bruce Davis was highly productive in a big time program.  He lead the Pac-10 in sacks last year with 12 and finshed his career second on the UCLA all-time sack list and 3rd in tackles for loss.  He is James Harrison's eventual replacement.  Sure Harrison has started only one season, but he will be 30 this season.  Tony Hills was not lazy, he was injured.  There is a huge difference between not performing for lack of effort and not performing because of a broken leg.  He allowed only 4 sacks and 7 QB pressures on 743 collegiate pass attempts.  That's not bad.  Would I have liked a top shelf offensive lineman or defensive end?   Sure, but if there are other players rated higher at either a position of need or a depth need, then you stick to you board and draft your highest rated player. 

Lets put one thing to rest here, The offensive line they have isn't that bad. Simple fact is Ben and the so called play makers could be accountable for probally half the sacks, you can't just hang them all on the line. Ben holds the ball longer than most QB's that will add to a sack total, Parker while he is a fine back has trouble being consistant when teams stack the box, and our WR's while I love them aren't really good when it comes to the jump ball, making it hard for Ben to get rid of it when preasure is immenent.

So they addressed the back issue.(while I addmitt I don't follow college ball I here R.M. is a bruising back with good speed)

They addressed t he WR position with a big WR, I beleave 6'4" 220.

And still have a project OL man who may workout and may not.

In all of the interviews with Steelers coaches, none of them seem overly concerned with the line, at least not nearly as concerned as the media seems to be with it. I watched all of the games last year and although the Steelers gave up a lot of sacks last year, that stat alone does not tell the whole story. #1There were a lot of coverage sacks where Ben was pulled down trying to extend a play when no one got open. Starting recievers spent a considerable amount of time on the injured list last year and Ben has a talent of being able to extend a play with his size and mobility to give his recievers more chances to get open. You are going to take some extra sacks that way but it is worth the pay off. #2 the Steelers played a more opened up offense last year than they have in the past. They played a lot of single back sets. That is one less guy to pass protect. #3 When the line looked bad was against the blitz and stunts. The line also did a bad job against 3-4 defenses like the Jets (who happened to sent 5 and 6 almost the whole game, maybe they saw something). The Steelers blocking assignments have always been called by the center. With the retirement of Hartings, that left someone new calling blocking assignments last year. I read that they experimented with Ben calling his own. I don't know if they stuck with it all year. #4 they had new line coach last year.

This isn't Madden football; plug in guy with higher stats = better line. Real football line play has a lot more to it, and player and coaching development mean a lot more. Besides having more size at reciever can allow you to get the ball out faster. More speed at reciever can allow you to leave the ends and backs in more often to pass protect. A power running game can be a great way to slow a blitz.

Well the Steelers draft was a good one. One of the better ones we have had in years. I think that some of us are over-analyzing because we didn't get some better "names" in here. Mendenhall is a Steeler. He is the type of back that we need. He compliments Willie. Sweed is the receiver that Ben wanted to have. So why not have one of the best receivers out of the draft. Great pick here. Davis will be the heir apparent to Harrison. He was a beast with UCLA. And he will spell Woodley and Harrison this year. No complaint here. Though Hills has had more than a fair share of injuries, he still managed to start for a very reputable school in Texas. Obviously the Steelers staff see something in him that will have him on the field by next year. Maybe this year as well. Dixon will be the back up to Ben in a year or 2. But I see him as a good "slash" type of player. It may have been a little reach to get him the 5th RD, but we shall see how it pans out when the season starts. He has a great arm and he can run. So this will benefit us. Humpal is a player I see on the special teams. Hey you cannot go wrong here. ANY HELP WE GET HERE IS A BONUS. And believe it or not, Mundy has had a good career thus far and it will only get better with the Steelers. He was a very good S with Michigan and WVU. In fact; he teamed with Wicks to have one of the best S tandems in the nation. He has exceptional cover skills and he can tackle.

Only due time will tell how these players pan out with us but I think that we had a good draft. We cannot evaluate the draft based on that we didn't get any DEs or we didn't get any more known names on the OL. But hey, not every player drafted becomes a starter. Roles players is what helps teams win as well. We addressed the majority of them in the draft and we are talking to FAs right now. So I'm sure that we shall be complete by the time the training camp rolls around.