flippy
04-27-2019, 09:20 AM
To be completely honest, none of the picks got me that excited when we made each of them.
Trading 2 premium picks to go ILB in the top 10? That was a shocker. Not the player, but the overall strategy.
Then using the 2nd pick in round 3 on a guy that was a complete unknown at a position that was surprising to me with measurables that were "meh" and made me wonder did we panic again and reach like we often do on a guy that sounds like he might not be worth drafting.
And then with another CB, man, my gut just says if we pick him he's a bust because we cannot eval DBs for the life of our team.
But as I've taken a deeper look at these guys, I'm liking this draft a lot more than my initial reaction.
Re: Bush, I'm falling in love with the player. It's hard to find a negative in his game. He's a bit small. I really think that's it. You put him in a slightly bigger body and people would be talking about him as one of the best players in the draft period. I've done a 180 in my thinking and am on board with Bush transcends the position he plays and was worth a top 10 pick. The more you watch him, the more you will realize he's a hitter. He plays with a bit of an edge and looks all in effort on every play. And there's some interviews that he does where he's no nonsense and just tells me he's special. Someone was asking him about living up to the pressure of being the 3rd guy Colbert traded up for when 1 player's a HOFer (Troy) and the other was a SuperBowl MVP (Santonio) and without even thinking, Bush says he wants to be both. I had a dream last night that Shazier returned to play along side Bush and our D went into another stratosphere.
Re: our second pick, I'm coming around there too. I'm going to defer to the Steelers on picking WRs and this is an area where I trust Coach T's gut. This was Tomlin's guy and watching him play, he does have a quickness that jumps out. And it's not just cause he's playing against subpar talent. His start is fast and he's fluid in his change of direction. And he has really good hands. For a little guy, his combine numbers seemed slow, so I went back and watched him and I'm not sure he trained to run a 40 in shorts. Sometimes you can watch a 40 and see a guy that's easy fast. Some I watched this year that stood out as faster guys than their 40 time were guys like Mecole and McLaurin. But I now think the same of Johnson. He started slow bent over and coming out of the blocks, but then went into a smooth speed when he was standing and out of his start. Definitely plays a lot faster and got me thinking the 40s should be measured from a standing start like a WR would start lined up in a game. I'd say most 40 numbers are BS and I think if you watch enough you can see slow timed guys that are fast and vice versa as well as some fast timed guys being blazing fast or some slow guys being really slow. Whatever, Johnson is quick. His athleticism jumps off the screen in his games. And I see a guy if he's bigger and comes from a top school, people would be drooling over. I was caught as surprised and doubtful simply because I didn't watch him or really know who he was. But I'm sold on our 1st 2 picks will pan out. But don't sleep on Switzer. I think Johnson might push Switz into another gear and I think he might surprise some of us.
And then finally Layne is the one I'm most unsure about, but I'll be hopeful. In retrospect, this isn't the kind of player the Steelers would typically go after as a CB. And that's where I'm going to hang my hat. They are looking for an anti Steeler DB here. I go back and watch some games with Layne and I feel like he's a bit awkward at times in a baby giraffe or Plaxico Burress/Martavis Bryant kind of way. But the more I watch, the more I realize he's a CB that's aware of the ball in the air. And he's got these crazy long arms. And he seems a little more physical. There's some effort and upside, but he needs some coaching, but I like going after the bigger CB with ball skills. Big question is can we develop a CB? I started liking the kid we have to work with here and think of him as having huge upside, but a low % chance of reaching that upside. I still want to see some interviews to get a better feel on his mindset/character. That's could push me more in his favor.
All that said, I went from unsure of each pick to being 100% in on our 1st 2 picks and feeling there's a low % chance for a monster upside with our 3rd pick. Somehow everything felt a little bit reachy to me in the first 2 days, but I'm ok with it as this point and think we're going to have some solid luck and I'm going to trust the Steelers probably went all in on character after the recent fiasco/drama with AB and Bell.
Trading 2 premium picks to go ILB in the top 10? That was a shocker. Not the player, but the overall strategy.
Then using the 2nd pick in round 3 on a guy that was a complete unknown at a position that was surprising to me with measurables that were "meh" and made me wonder did we panic again and reach like we often do on a guy that sounds like he might not be worth drafting.
And then with another CB, man, my gut just says if we pick him he's a bust because we cannot eval DBs for the life of our team.
But as I've taken a deeper look at these guys, I'm liking this draft a lot more than my initial reaction.
Re: Bush, I'm falling in love with the player. It's hard to find a negative in his game. He's a bit small. I really think that's it. You put him in a slightly bigger body and people would be talking about him as one of the best players in the draft period. I've done a 180 in my thinking and am on board with Bush transcends the position he plays and was worth a top 10 pick. The more you watch him, the more you will realize he's a hitter. He plays with a bit of an edge and looks all in effort on every play. And there's some interviews that he does where he's no nonsense and just tells me he's special. Someone was asking him about living up to the pressure of being the 3rd guy Colbert traded up for when 1 player's a HOFer (Troy) and the other was a SuperBowl MVP (Santonio) and without even thinking, Bush says he wants to be both. I had a dream last night that Shazier returned to play along side Bush and our D went into another stratosphere.
Re: our second pick, I'm coming around there too. I'm going to defer to the Steelers on picking WRs and this is an area where I trust Coach T's gut. This was Tomlin's guy and watching him play, he does have a quickness that jumps out. And it's not just cause he's playing against subpar talent. His start is fast and he's fluid in his change of direction. And he has really good hands. For a little guy, his combine numbers seemed slow, so I went back and watched him and I'm not sure he trained to run a 40 in shorts. Sometimes you can watch a 40 and see a guy that's easy fast. Some I watched this year that stood out as faster guys than their 40 time were guys like Mecole and McLaurin. But I now think the same of Johnson. He started slow bent over and coming out of the blocks, but then went into a smooth speed when he was standing and out of his start. Definitely plays a lot faster and got me thinking the 40s should be measured from a standing start like a WR would start lined up in a game. I'd say most 40 numbers are BS and I think if you watch enough you can see slow timed guys that are fast and vice versa as well as some fast timed guys being blazing fast or some slow guys being really slow. Whatever, Johnson is quick. His athleticism jumps off the screen in his games. And I see a guy if he's bigger and comes from a top school, people would be drooling over. I was caught as surprised and doubtful simply because I didn't watch him or really know who he was. But I'm sold on our 1st 2 picks will pan out. But don't sleep on Switzer. I think Johnson might push Switz into another gear and I think he might surprise some of us.
And then finally Layne is the one I'm most unsure about, but I'll be hopeful. In retrospect, this isn't the kind of player the Steelers would typically go after as a CB. And that's where I'm going to hang my hat. They are looking for an anti Steeler DB here. I go back and watch some games with Layne and I feel like he's a bit awkward at times in a baby giraffe or Plaxico Burress/Martavis Bryant kind of way. But the more I watch, the more I realize he's a CB that's aware of the ball in the air. And he's got these crazy long arms. And he seems a little more physical. There's some effort and upside, but he needs some coaching, but I like going after the bigger CB with ball skills. Big question is can we develop a CB? I started liking the kid we have to work with here and think of him as having huge upside, but a low % chance of reaching that upside. I still want to see some interviews to get a better feel on his mindset/character. That's could push me more in his favor.
All that said, I went from unsure of each pick to being 100% in on our 1st 2 picks and feeling there's a low % chance for a monster upside with our 3rd pick. Somehow everything felt a little bit reachy to me in the first 2 days, but I'm ok with it as this point and think we're going to have some solid luck and I'm going to trust the Steelers probably went all in on character after the recent fiasco/drama with AB and Bell.