RuthlessBurgher's Initial Offseason Mock Draft 1.0 prior to the Super Bowl

[Oviedo]

Antonio Gates is one guy. However, I already stated most players are able to make the transition to TE but we are talking RB to LB.

If you fear Conner would have a short career due to his running style how much longer would it be at LB taking on Tackles and Guards?

He is too good of a RB to make that switch as a pro. I think he can have a nice 6 year career in short yardage. No way he makes it as a LB in the NFL.

Also, how do you tell a guy who beat cancer, ran all over the ACC and broke the all time TD rushing record that he can't do it in the pro's?

Agree with all you say. Moving Connor to LB is crazy talk. He is the guy you want in the red zone to punch it into the end zone. he has power and enough quicks to get in.

This is one player I really hope the Steelers target and can get.

[Steelerphile]

Antonio Gates is one guy. However, I already stated most players are able to make the transition to TE but we are talking RB to LB.

If you fear Conner would have a short career due to his running style how much longer would it be at LB taking on Tackles and Guards?

He is too good of a RB to make that switch as a pro. I think he can have a nice 6 year career in short yardage. No way he makes it as a LB in the NFL.

Also, how do you tell a guy who beat cancer, ran all over the ACC and broke the all time TD rushing record that he can't do it in the pro's?

Defensive players last longer than RBs because they are delivering the hits, and RBS are intent on making the yards and will be taking blows from different directions. How do you know Conner wouldn't be as much or more excited about playing defense for the Steelers? I'm convinced he could do it and as for being called crazy, I take it as a compliment since visionaries are always called crazy. Since most people are not going to think outside the box, like me, I doubt anybody will think it about. so RB he will most likely be.

[Oviedo]

Conner likely wants to be an NFL player above all. His best chance of doing that is doing what he has done very successfully at a major college level and that is play RB. That is his surest path to earning a job an career in the NFL. The high risk path is trying to learn a new position and serving an apprenticeship, probably being on a practice squad, hoping it works out. That is why moving him to defense and thinking he wants to do that is crazy talk

[Slapstick]

The Steelers have done it with Nix and Villanueva...who knows?

[RuthlessBurgher]

Mock Draft 3.0:

Include a couple of late round comp picks (guessing 5 & 7) but projecting no trades this time.

Gonna go defense heavy again. In another thread, I suggested 4 defenders that I'd love to see us get with our top 4 picks, but then I stopped there. Going to include those four and then finish it off here.

Just like we were able to fix our seemingly endless o-line woes by making multiple OL picks in the first and second rounds, we might be able to fix our seemingly endless secondary woes by making multiple DB picks in the first and second round. Going corner in the first and safety in the second with Burns and Davis worked out really well, so I'm hoping that lightning strikes twice, and I'm projecting that we go corner and safety with our top two picks again, this time ending up with Washington Husky teammates Sidney Jones and Budda Baker. Burns/Jones/Cockrell/Gay at corner and Davis/Baker/Mitchell/Golden at safety gives us many options in our secondary.

Next two picks are linebackers. First, an althetic edge rusher that can learn from Deebo and Bud now, then ultimately replace Deebo when he hangs 'em up...Houston OLB Tyus Bowser. Then a small school tackling machine who should excel on special teams while he provides depth behind Timmons and/or Vince...Lindenwood ILB Connor Harris.

In round 5, switch over to the offense for some RB depth. Tomlin reportedly loves Pitt RB James Conner. He's a natural leader and a short-yardage beast, and was just found to have a completely cancer free scan this week. A great kid for the locker room.

Then we switch over to some guys with red flags who might have otherwise have gone much earlier for the rest of our offensive depth. I hate to use our precious early picks on guys with character question marks, but as we get into the latter portion of day 3, the risk of a complete flameout isn't devastating anymore, but the ultimate reward if guys like this do pan out could be immense. Arkansas TE Jeremy Sprinkle, and the Ole Miss connection of QB Chad Kelly and WR Demore'ea Stringfellow. Ben is good friends with Jim Kelly and his family, so he should have some insight about the relative risk/reward of drafting his nephew, because if his resume was clean, he might have the best arm talent in this entire draft.

And then finally, back to the defense for some d-line depth. Going small school developmental prospect again with DE Collin Bevins from Northwest Missouri State.

To summarize:

1. CB Sidney Jones, Washington 6'0" 181
2. FS Budda Baker, Washington 5'10" 192
3. OLB Tyus Bowser, Houston 6'2" 244
4. ILB Connor Harris, Lindenwood 5'11 241
5. RB James Conner, Pittsburgh 6'2" 240
5c. TE Jeremy Sprinkle, Arkansas 6'5" 256
6. QB Chad Kelly, Mississippi 6'2" 224
7. WR Demore'ea Stringfellow, Mississippi 6'2" 212
7c. DE Collin Bevins, Northwest Missouri State 6'5" 286

[NJ-STEELER]

Nice mock.
With a 3rd round comp pick now. I would look to use that to add to the DE rotation.
Another edge guy but more of DE then OLB when we go 4-3
I THINK we're set at ILB. Bring back Timmons on ancap friendly contract. Shaze, Vinnie's, Mak.
I could see trying to add someone in the late rounds or UDFA

[BradshawsHairdresser]

Mock Draft 3.0:

Include a couple of late round comp picks (guessing 5 & 7) but projecting no trades this time.

Gonna go defense heavy again. In another thread, I suggested 4 defenders that I'd love to see us get with our top 4 picks, but then I stopped there. Going to include those four and then finish it off here.

Just like we were able to fix our seemingly endless o-line woes by making multiple OL picks in the first and second rounds, we might be able to fix our seemingly endless secondary woes by making multiple DB picks in the first and second round. Going corner in the first and safety in the second with Burns and Davis worked out really well, so I'm hoping that lightning strikes twice, and I'm projecting that we go corner and safety with our top two picks again, this time ending up with Washington Husky teammates Sidney Jones and Budda Baker. Burns/Jones/Cockrell/Gay at corner and Davis/Baker/Mitchell/Golden at safety gives us many options in our secondary.

Next two picks are linebackers. First, an althetic edge rusher that can learn from Deebo and Bud now, then ultimately replace Deebo when he hangs 'em up...Houston OLB Tyus Bowser. Then a small school tackling machine who should excel on special teams while he provides depth behind Timmons and/or Vince...Lindenwood ILB Connor Harris.

In round 5, switch over to the offense for some RB depth. Tomlin reportedly loves Pitt RB James Conner. He's a natural leader and a short-yardage beast, and was just found to have a completely cancer free scan this week. A great kid for the locker room.

Then we switch over to some guys with red flags who might have otherwise have gone much earlier for the rest of our offensive depth. I hate to use our precious early picks on guys with character question marks, but as we get into the latter portion of day 3, the risk of a complete flameout isn't devastating anymore, but the ultimate reward if guys like this do pan out could be immense. Arkansas TE Jeremy Sprinkle, and the Ole Miss connection of QB Chad Kelly and WR Demore'ea Stringfellow. Ben is good friends with Jim Kelly and his family, so he should have some insight about the relative risk/reward of drafting his nephew, because if his resume was clean, he might have the best arm talent in this entire draft.

And then finally, back to the defense for some d-line depth. Going small school developmental prospect again with DE Collin Bevins from Northwest Missouri State.

To summarize:

1. CB Sidney Jones, Washington 6'0" 181
2. FS Budda Baker, Washington 5'10" 192
3. OLB Tyus Bowser, Houston 6'2" 244
4. ILB Connor Harris, Lindenwood 5'11 241
5. RB James Conner, Pittsburgh 6'2" 240
5c. TE Jeremy Sprinkle, Arkansas 6'5" 256
6. QB Chad Kelly, Mississippi 6'2" 224
7. WR Demore'ea Stringfellow, Mississippi 6'2" 212
7c. DE Collin Bevins, Northwest Missouri State 6'5" 286

Wow ... a Washington double-dip, followed by a Mississippi double-dip! I don't think I'd be too disappointed if it played out that way -- especially if the Steelers grabbed some good pass-rushing help in the FA market.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Thanks, fellas... Unfortunately, I opted to do this about an hour and a half before the league officially announced the actual comp picks, rendering a mock predicting comps in the 5th and 7th rounds obsolete almost immediately. I guess I'll have to re-do it again with the 3rd round comp instead soon. Probably after the weekend...Mocks are more fun to post when I'm at work getting paid for such foolishness.

[FreePassCra$h]

I think Connor is going to go 3rd round, no later than 4th. In fact it wouldn't shock me if we use that comp pick to pick him if he's there.

But that's a good mock. Fills needs and no throw away picks. If Timmons stays though I wouldn't pick an ILB in your spot, I'd go WR there instead.

[Rara]

Round 1- Hassan Reddick, OLB; Temple
Round 2- Raekwan McMillon, ILB; Ohio State
Round 3a- Marcus Williams, S; Utah
Round 3b- Joe Mixon, RB; Oklahoma
Round 4- Isaiah Ford, WR; Virginia Tech
Round 5- Howard Wilson, CB; Houston
Round 7- Patrick Towles, QB; Boston College

Steelers big signing: Prince Amukamara, CB

[Oviedo]

I see DL getting ignored in a lot of the mocks. I think we need to add a body in the draft and free agency

[Real Deal Steel]

DL is getting too ignored in these mocks. We are going to take one in the first 3 rounds. Probably DE because when we lost Heyward, it was noticeable.

Now that I'm thinking about it, our first two picks will be OLB and DE; based on who's rated highest player when our first round pick comes up.

[Slapstick]

Was it noticeable when we lost Heyward?

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that he'll be back next season, but the defense improved as the season went on...I think his return will be an additional lift to the developing defense...

[Real Deal Steel]

Did the pass rush improve after Heyward went down? I thought it dropped off and then we compensated by blitzing more.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Okay...here’s Ruthless Mock 4.0 (after the comp pick announcement but before the combine workouts begin):


The thing that I want to happen the most is for OSU FS Malik Hooker to fall out of the top half of the first round and into the 20's (because of two offseason surgical procedures that will keep him out of action for 4-6 months, preventing him from being able to hold any pre-draft workouts at the Combine or Pro Day, and also missing all minicamps and OTA's, and possibly even the start of training camp). If this happened, we would reasonably be able to trade up to get him like we did for future Hall of Fame safety Troy Polamalu or Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes. Hooker is officially my mancrush of this draft (although he may need a little bit of time to reach his full potential due to lack of long-term playing experience, his instincts lead me to believe that his pro trajectory would be somewhere between Earl Thomas and Ed Reed). If we could trade a couple of picks to move up for him (I’d be willing to go as high as, say, 3.94 and 5.173 or 3.105 and 4.135), then I would make that move. However, I doubt that Hooker falls far enough to a reasonable trade up to happen. I hope it does, but I'm not holding my breath. Moving on to other options...

In another previous mock, I went corner-safety once again with my top two picks, nabbing Washington Husky secondary duo Sidney Jones and Budda Baker. However, I also doubt that Jones falls into our laps at #30. If he did fall into the latter portion of round 1, I suspect that the teams picking directly ahead of us, Dallas and Green Bay, would be all over that. Moving on yet again to other options...

And back to my first mock. With all of our needs on defense, and the best RB in the league on our roster already, I still started out this mock draft season by suggesting an unusual pick in Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey. He'd be excellent insurance for Bell if he gets injured again, is caught smoking again, or is only franchised tagged for a year or two. Even if we do sign Le'Veon to a 4-5 year extension, we could still easily afford both, since McCaffrey would be on a reasonable rookie contract throughout that time, and by the time you'd have to decide what to pay Christian on his second NFL contact, Le'Veon will be in his 30's and entering his 10th NFL season, which is typically the end of the line for most NFL RB's. Although other RB's like Fournette and Cook may higher rated than McCaffrey, Christian is the guy who I would want to pair up with Le'Veon, because he wouldn't only be a backup to Bell, he'd be a complement, since they share a similar skill set in terms of their running, blocking, route running, and catching abilities, allowing them both to be on the field at the same time and lining up all over the place...excellent chess pieces to have if your O.C. is creative enough to utilize such talents to their fullest potential. Bell has reviewed college tape for McCaffrey already to give him pointers, so they have a working relationship already and Le'Veon has referred to Christian as "my guy."

Another reason that I suggest this odd idea for what appears to be somewhat of a luxury offensive pick in round one with so many more urgent needs on defense is that draft pundits are stating that this is one of the deepest classes in recent years for edge rushers, corners, and safeties, since you may still be able to get 1^st or 2^nd round value into round 3 and possibly even round 4. And now that we have another 3^rd round pick via the compensatory system to work with, I’m still able to get the quality FS, OLB and CB we are looking for on day two, then addressing multiple depth needs with our four remaining picks on day three of the draft.

1. RB Christian McCaffrey, Stanford, 5’11” 202 lbs.
2. FS Budda Baker, Washington, 5’10” 192 lbs
3. OLB Tyus Bowser, Houston, 6’2” 244 lbs.
3c. CB Rasul Douglas, West Virginia, 6’2” 204lbs.
4. DE Tanoh Kpassagnon, Villanova, 6’7” 280 lbs.
5. TE Jeremy Sprinkle, Arkansas, 6’5” 256 lbs.
6. ILB Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Tennessee, 6’0” 230 lbs
7. WR Damore’ea Stringfellow, Mississippi, 6’2” 212 lbs.