Great Draft so far

[steeler_george]

We virtually grabbed 2 first found talents in Decastro and Adams

Got a speedy playmaker in ILB

Got a player who we thought was going to go in the second in te... ( got to learn how to spell is name)

Now we need depth at safty, LB, CB, and RB

[Dee Dub]

steeler_george I agree with you. I love this draft. If you would have told me in October that the Steelers would end up with DeCastro and Ta'amu I would have been said you were crazy. And then to get Adams and now Chris Rainey (a complimentary 3rd down rb who brings a change of pace to the offense).......wow!!

I like it.

[Eddie Spaghetti]

I like it too.

hate to admit it, but the bungles have done really well too.

[Sugar]

I like it too.

hate to admit it, but the bungles have done really well too.

Yeah, they are going to very hard to overcome this year. This isn't the same old toxic locker room that their used to having.

[04272012]

the best Steeler draft in many years!

[NorCal-Steeler]

I think where we're really going to reap the benifits is the new o-cordinator. You can have all the talent in the world and if you dont play to strengths its useless.

[steelerkeylargo]

Agreed. Very solid. OL overhaul!!!

[hawaiiansteel]

Colbert’s draft track record nearly unparalleled

By Carl Prine and Mark Kaboly

Published: Sunday, April 29, 2012



Past performance might not predict future results, but Kevin Colbert’s history as Steelers general manager strongly suggests that first-round draft pick David DeCastro has every chance of becoming a star for one of the NFL’s most storied franchises.

A Tribune-Review data analysis of Colbert’s 2000-10 picks shows Pittsburgh’s picker is a drafting genius when compared against eight other peers considered the top front office talent in the NFL. Weighing both the longevity of the drafted players’ careers — talent and durability — and their dominance as told through Pro Bowl selections, the Trib found Colbert’s record is only surpassed by Scott Pioli, former New England Patriots general manager now with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Former Indianapolis Colts GM Bill Polian, who was fired in January and is now an ESPN analyst, finished third in the Trib analysis. The trio combined to win six Super Bowls since 2000 and played in four more.

When the Trib asked to talk to Colbert about his legacy after Thursday night’s first-round draft, he shrugged it off.

Colbert might not want to yap about it, but draft experts have long championed him as an underrated star at picking quality players.

“When we are talking about the best drafting teams in the league, Pittsburgh is on the short list,” said NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock, a 10th-round pick of the Steelers in 1981 — nearly two decades before Colbert became the team’s GM.

“They continue to go to Super Bowls and win football games because the personnel side of the house continues to provide good players. When they are spending dollars to re-sign their homegrown players, that’s better than free-agency because they know what they are going to get,” Mayock said.

The Trib analysis also charted the draft strategies of five other highly respected general managers and coaches, including Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles, now-deceased Oakland Raiders owner and Hall of Famer Al Davis, Floyd Reese of the Tennessee Titans and Patriots, former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, A.J. Smith of the San Diego Chargers and Mickey Loomis of the embattled New Orleans Saints.

Colbert began drafting in 2000, but even limiting his performance to the same years as Loomis (who began in 2002) and Smith (starting in 2003), the Steelers’ GM beats them.

FIRST-ROUND DOMINATOR

A key to Colbert’s success — and a trait shared by Polian and Pioli — can be found in his savvy first-round picks. Of Polian’s 11 selections since 2000, only injured guard Kendall Simmons failed to make an NFL roster last year. Altogether, his choices have played in 17 Pro Bowls. They include center Maurkice Pouncey of the University of Florida, tight end Heath Miller of the University of Virginia, safety Troy Polamalu of Southern Cal, Texas nose tackle Casey Hampton, Michigan State wideout Plaxico Burress and the cornerstone of the offense, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of Miami (Ohio).

“You shouldn’t miss on a first-rounder,” Colbert said. “To me, that’s a given. If you miss on a two or three, you better hope you got lucky in a later round and compensate for that. When you don’t get the first-round guy right, that sets you back for probably four years. That’s a slot you are going to try to fill at some point, whether it is a draft pick or a free agent. And yes, we are not big spenders in free agency and never will be because we want to keep our own.”

Of Colbert’s 11 top picks, only Roethlisberger came from a college outside of a Bowl Championship Series conference. The Trib’s analysis also found that Colbert’s collective selections in 2003, e_SSRq09 and e_SSRq10 were on average superior to those chosen by the other front office personnel surveyed.

Although Colbert tends to dominate first rounds in the draft, the Trib analysis found he does only slightly better — sometimes worse — than his peers in later rounds. The Chargers’ Smith owns the second and third rounds. Before he got booted by the Broncos after the 2008 season, Shanahan was a wizard of the fourth-round, and the Saints’ Loomis was best in the bargain basement fifth through seventh rounds, snatching guard Carl Nicks, defensive end Rob Ninkovich and speedy wideout Marques Colston in recent years.

Colbert almost always reserves his top picks for big-program talent, but in those three superior draft years he plucked stellar contributors from small campuses, including Louisiana-Lafayette defensive back Ike Taylor and Pro Bowl returner Antonio Brown, a sixth-round steal out of Central Michigan.

“Kevin Colbert is one of the handful of guys I study just to try to get better and evaluate what he’s doing and what they’re doing as an organization,” ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay said. “So I have the utmost respect for Colbert and for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And part of it is exactly that — they rarely miss.”

LUCK A FACTOR

One of Colbert’s rare misses was the 2006 draft. The class was led by Ohio State wideout Santonio Holmes, who made a Super Bowl-winning catch but was later traded from the team after a spate of personal problems. Also in that class was disappointing Florida State receiver Willie Reid and fourth-round flameout Orien
Harris, a defensive tackle out of the University of Miami.

The problem is that the deeper the rounds go, the less likely any of the draft picks will pan out. Sometimes plain old luck takes a larger role in the process, experts say.

“You have to have some good luck,” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said.

“To go along with skill, you have to have a lot of good luck and good fortune.”

The 1935 brainchild of the late Philadelphia Eagles owner Bert Bell, the NFL Draft is vital to economic and competitive parity in the NFL. Alongside the salary cap, it limits labor costs and bars big market teams from gobbling up the best college talent. For franchises in smaller markets like Pittsburgh to thrive, Colbert and his scouts team with Mike Tomlin and his coaches to spend thousands of hours poring over footage and complex data on potential picks.

“Before there was a draft, it was basically a free-for-all,” said Pete Fierle, digital archivist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. “Back then, players were chosen, and they stayed with teams for many years until they were traded at the ends of their careers. Today, there’s a great deal of sophistication in drafting.”

[URL]http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/1219519-85/colbert-draft-round-nfl-steelers-trib-general-picks-analysis-kevin[/URL]