Official 2012 Visit Thread

[phillyesq]

Bouchette reporting that in addition to Mychal Kendricks, Cameron Johnson from Virginia and Olivier Vernon from Miami will be visiting today.

[calmkiller]

Yup. Confirming Phillyesq's report.

[URL="https://twitter.com/#%21/EdBouchette"]Ed Bouchette @EdBouchette [/URL] 3 college LBs visit [URL="https://twitter.com/#%21/search/%23Steelers"]#Steelers[/URL] today: Mychal Kendricks, Cal; Cameron Johnson, Va.; Olivier Vernon, Miami

[calmkiller]

The trend so far is we have only brought in one second rounder and no 5th rounders. Wonder if we are looking to trade those picks away to move up.

[Chadman]

[URL="http://www.kffl.com/gnews.php?id=780368-steelers-met-with-jonathan-martin"]Steelers | Met with Jonathan Martin [/URL]
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:49:25 -0700
The [URL="http://www.kffl.com/team/30/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers"]Pittsburgh Steelers[/URL] have met with Stanford OT [URL="http://www.kffl.com/player/25716/nfl/jonathan-martin"]Jonathan Martin[/URL] this offseason.

[calmkiller]

[URL="http://www.kffl.com/gnews.php?id=780368-steelers-met-with-jonathan-martin"]Steelers | Met with Jonathan Martin [/URL]
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:49:25 -0700
The [URL="http://www.kffl.com/team/30/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers"]Pittsburgh Steelers[/URL] have met with Stanford OT [URL="http://www.kffl.com/player/25716/nfl/jonathan-martin"]Jonathan Martin[/URL] this offseason.

Do we have a date? Was it a visit to the south side? They could have met with him at a proday or something along those lines. I will put this under the rumor column until we have more information. Thanks Chadman.

[RuthlessBurgher]

[URL="http://www.kffl.com/gnews.php?id=780368-steelers-met-with-jonathan-martin"]Steelers | Met with Jonathan Martin [/URL]
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:49:25 -0700
The [URL="http://www.kffl.com/team/30/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers"]Pittsburgh Steelers[/URL] have met with Stanford OT [URL="http://www.kffl.com/player/25716/nfl/jonathan-martin"]Jonathan Martin[/URL] this offseason.

I still want us to try to trade up for DeCastro if he's within reasonable range, but since that is probably not very likely, and since his OT teammate Martin has been falling recently from possible top 10 consideration into the late first (for no apparent reason that I can see), I changed my sig mock last week to include Martin at #24.

[phillyesq]

Ed Bouchette @EdBouchetteAlso in [URL="http://www.planetsteelers.com/#!/search/%23steelers"]#steelers[/URL] house today: RB LaMichael James & TE David Paulson, both Oregon; G Amini Silatolu, Midwestern State

And some linebacker named Hightower:

Ed Bouchette @EdBouchette

• One many have waited for: Alabama LB Dont'a Hightower visiting [URL="http://www.planetsteelers.com/#!/search/%23Steelers"]#Steelers[/URL] today.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Silatolu could be interesting.

And now that the Hightower fella has visited, maybe we'll actually get some threads started to talk about him! Whaddaya say?

[calmkiller]

I tried to post this earlier today, but the board was down for hours.

[focosteeler]

have we met officially with any type of NT prospect?

[calmkiller]

[URL="https://twitter.com/#%21/SteelersDigest"]Steelers Digest @SteelersDigest [/URL] Visiting today are BYU DT Hebron Fangupo and Wayne State safety Jeremy Jones.

[Keyplay1]

Needed a couple more mock draft signatures from posters and this thread was the last one to check. I couldn't help but notice the last 4 additions to the list. So I shot over to the PG to see what was there. I found this ----

"Four more college players also visited the Steelers Thursday as prospective draft picks: linebacker Dont'a Hightower of Alabama; running back LaMichael James and tight end David Paulson of Oregon; guard Amini Silatolu of Midwestern State."

This was at the tail end of Ed Bouchette's article about the resigning of Legursky and someone else. Bother me? Absolutely not. I am glad there is very little hype on any thing the Steelers are doing draftwise this year. There is a very good possibility that a big piece of the Steelers future is there in those four players and had I not known it had to be somewhere I would never have noticed it. Good! Less said the better. Let the MB's and Blogs go on and on---- it always seem to work out in favor of the Steelers.

My only comment on all this pre-draft hype is: A lot of players are put under the microscope in the preceding weeks before the draft. Causing some to fall, others to move up for really no good reasons necessarily. My comment is that most people that play in the NFL probably don't have a microscope. Also those that really have the say so in these matters don't have one either. As a matter of fact some might not even know what a microscope is. Good!

[phillyesq]

Recap of visits from Bouchette:

[URL="http://www.planetsteelers.com/index.php/pro-sports/steelers/115862-ed-steelers-entertain-at-least-20-prospects"]Ed: Steelers Entertain at Least 20 Prospects[/URL]

Friday, 13 April 2012 13:13
Written by Ed Bouchette [URL="http://www.planetsteelers.com/index.php/component/mailto/?tmpl=component&link=2b58d63e94b18975d6d0696d06afa 7b872793307"][/URL]


Two more prospects visited the Steelers today. By my count, that brings the total to 20, by my count, although we may have missed some.
The two today: DT Hebron Fangupo, BYU; S Jeremy Jones, Wayne State.
The team is permitted to have 30 visits before the draft, not counting players in their own town, such as those from Pitt.
Here is the list I have, with my rough original notes or what I wrote for the blog, the web or the paper, on the visits so far:

4/2 Two more low-grade draft prospects visited the Steelers Monday, Alabama linebacker Jerrell Harris and West Virginia cornerback Keith Tandy.
That brings to six the known official visits made by college players to the Steelers. Guard Brandon Brooks of Miami (Ohio) was there Friday and three others visited previously: Ohio State OT Mike Adams, Florida International WR T.Y. Hilton and Cincinnati DL Derek Wolfe.

4/4 Running back Isaiah Pead of the University of Cincinnati is visiting the Steelers today, the latest prospect of 30 permitted to do so before the draft.

4/5 OT Bobby Massie of Mississippi State paid a visit to the Steelers Wednesday. He’s the second OT to visit them, following Ohio State’s Mike Adams.
4/10 -- The Steelers also had another tight end for a visit, one of three draft prospects at their facility on Tuesday: Missouri tight end Michael Egnew, Akiem Hicks, who played college football at Regina in Canada, and linebacker Nick Perry of Southern Cal.


4/11 -- Three college players, all linebacker prospects, visitedthe Steelers Wednesday: Mychal Kendricks of California, Cameron Johnson of Virginia and Olivier Vernon of Miami, Fla. Kendricks is an inside linebacker the other two would be outside linebackers in a 3-4 and defensive ends in a 4-3.

4/12 -- Four college players also are visiting the Steelers today as prospective draft picks: linebacker Dont’a Hightower of Alabama, running back LaMichael James and tight end David Paulson, both of Oregon, and guard Amini Silatolu of Midwestern State.


4/13 – DT Hebron Fangupo, BYU; S Jeremy Jones, Wayne State

[Keyplay1]

Okay phillyesq: He recapped it today. Good idea. Uh!

I guess this settles the yearly question I have whether or not WV players are local. I guess they are not. This list has 20 ck's has 19 with Tandy in the local bunch. Next year I;ll forget again, I;m sure but for now its WV players are considered visitors. Actually, I see where Mundy was listed as one of the 30 a couple years back.

[RuthlessBurgher]

have we met officially with any type of NT prospect?

Former USC Trojan and current BYU Cougar Loni Fangupo today (has been on my mock for the last several weeks), plus Akiem Hicks former LSU Tiger who transferred to Canada to play in Regina, Saskatchewan (spent some time on my mock prior to that) earlier this week. I think guys like these are important to bring in for a visit, since these trips are all about getting to know the player (knowing their reasons for transferring is important) since they cannot work the players out during their visits to team facilities.