Quote Originally Posted by lloydroid View Post
How many draft picks do we average a year? 7? 8? Since 2007, how many quality players have they drafted? (And don't give me this crap about being a play off each year makes finding good players impossible because we draft lower. Maybe you could apply that to how great the first round pick is, but you have 7 picks X 5, 35 picks.) Out of those 35 picks, how many quality players did they find? Hey, certainly not expecting for them to have found 35 good players, but how about more than 6? Should they have not found at least 15 pretty good players in that span? We will now be having to face reality after so many bad draft classes. It is pathetic.
So what is a reasonable definition of "quality" or "pretty good" player? A player that is a starter for a playoff caliber team? A player that regularly performs up to expectations relative to draft position? Is a fifth through seventh round pick that makes the roster quality? What if he actually starts and plays well -- does that earn extra credit?

And what about players that were otherwise playing well but who were stricken with injuries? Is that reasonably something you can pin on the GM?

And what about players who contributed while here but took advantage of free agency to leave? The GM can't force a player to accept a contract, right?

And do we give credit for finding quality undrafted free agents?

2007 --- Lawrence Timmons, Lamar Woodley, Daniel Sepulveda
2008 --- the entire draft now looks like it was a disaster, I will give you this one. But the team did get three solid seasons from Mendenhall. And Mundy lasted a lot longer than most teams 7th round picks. Most people were when Sweed dropped to us in Rd 2. Who could have predicted his problems would be mental rather than injury related.
2009 --- Ziggy Hood, Kraig Urbik, Mike Wallace, Keenan Lewis; everyone from the 5th round on was a bust
2010 --- Maurkice Pouncey, Manny Sanders, Jonathan Dwyer, Antonio Brown, possibly Worilds
2011 --- Cam Heyward, Marcus Gilbert, Cortez Allen, possibly Curtis Brown, possibly Chris Carter

From 2007 - 2011, I'm seeing 18 names on that list. You can argue that some of those guys aren't what you consider quality, but most of the ones I've listed are either starting material or have been playing behind an entrenched starter and not given much opportunity so we don't really know yet what they can do if given an opportunity as a 10-12 game starter. You toss out the ones that have left --- Mendenhall, Wallace, Lewis, Sepulveda, Mundy --- that's still 13. Add in Isaac Redman and Ramon Foster, punter Drew Butler, Steve McClendon, Robert Golden --- they have done a decent job stocking this roster with players considering that (1) they have regularly been hamstrung with a tight cap because they somehow managed to keep the bulk of the SuperBowl XL defense --- and Roethlisberger --- together with expensive long term deals that kept them in contention long enough to win one more SB and make it to another (look at what happened to Baltimore's roster this offseason after ONE SuperBowl) and (2) due to that success, they are frequently picking at the bottom of the round in each draft.