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Steelers receiver Antonio Brown was a sixth-round draft pick.
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Steelers have drafting receivers 'down to a science'

Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Steelers have drafting receivers 'down to a science'

In the first half of Kevin Colbert’s tenure as the Steelers general manager, he invested some high draft picks in receivers, with varying amounts of success. Plaxico Burress came in the first round of his first draft in 2000. Antwaan Randle El came in the second round in 2002 and Limas Sweed in the second round in 2008.

None of those players made it to second contracts with the Steelers. Burress and Randle El left as free agents after their first contract expired (though both returned for one-year stints at the end of their careers) and Sweed lasted only two seasons before he was cut.

The mainstay throughout those years was Hines Ward, a third-round pick in the 1998 draft who also had to fight off Troy Edwards, a first-round pick in 1999, to become the team’s top receiver.

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In the past seven years, the Steelers haven’t selected a receiver before the third round, but they are widely regarded as the best organization when it comes to evaluating and drafting receivers.

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For the Steelers, it has been more about targeting lesser-known prospects in the later rounds and developing them in their receiver-friendly system.

“Wide receivers, more so than any other position, are easier to find outside the first round,” said Dane Brugler, a draft analyst for nfldraftscout.com. “There is an average of about 35 receivers taken every year. The Steelers, give them credit for not reaching, for finding good value, not forcing their hand in first or second round.

“With so many receivers drafted every year, the Steelers have done an excellent job in identifying that talent. It does take some luck. That player has to fall, but kudos to them for identifying talent. And a big part of it is development. You still have to get them in camp and develop them.”

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The Steelers have found some gems in the middle rounds of the draft that ranked among the top receivers in the games at various times over the past seven years.

  • Mike Wallace came in the third round in 2009. He had 4,042 receiving yards and 32 touchdowns in his four seasons with the Steelers. He cashed in that production for a lucrative free-agent contract in Miami after the 2012 season.
  • Emmanuel Sanders was selected in the third round in 2010. He had 2,030 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in his four seasons with the Steelers. He signed a free-agent contract with Denver after the 2013 season and has blossomed into one of the league’s leading receivers the past two seasons playing with quarterback Peyton Manning.
  • Antonio Brown was selected three rounds after Sanders in the same 2010 draft, in the sixth. He is the Ward of this generation, having fought off higher draft picks to be the mainstay of the Steelers receiving corps.

Brown has 7,098 yards and 38 touchdowns in his first seven NFL seasons and has totaled 265 receptions for 3,532 yards, the best two-season stretch in NFL history.

Others have been important complementary players in the past three years alongside Brown. 

  • Markus Wheaton was taken in the third round in 2013. He has 1,457 yards and seven touchdowns in his first three seasons.
  • Martavis Bryant, who won’t play in 2016 because of a drug suspension, came one year later in the fourth round. He totaled 1,314 yards and 14 touchdowns in his first two seasons.
  • Sammie Coates, a third-round pick a year ago, is expected to have a big role in the offense next season as Bryant’s replacement.

The only receivers the Steelers have drafted in the past seven years that haven’t had success in the league are Toney Clemons, a seventh-round pick in 2012, and Justin Brown, a sixth-round pick in 2013.

“The Steelers have it down to a science,” said Rob Rang, the senior draft analyst for nfldraftscout.com. “Some of those receivers are very different. Antonio Brown is different from Mike Wallace and Wallace is different from Martavis Bryant. They’ve come in all shapes and sizes. That’s what is unique about what they’ve done. They’ve had success with every type of receiver.

“They’ve done a phenomenal job of identifying what they need. They know when to go get a guy who is big and can have success going over the middle, or the guy who can run deep, going after different types of receivers where I think other teams just go out and get who they believe is the best receiver.”

Rang also said the quarterback matters. In Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers have an elite quarterback who can maximize the skill players around him.

Wallace, for example, was never the same player once he left the Steelers, with his production falling off a cliff in Miami and Minnesota the past few seasons.

And how will Sanders perform now without Manning as his quarterback?

“It’s a credit to their coaching staff and their scouting staff, but it’s a lot easier when you have a franchise quarterback throwing to those guys, a quarterback like Ben who can throw guys open,” Rang said.

Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.

First Published: April 23, 2016, 4:00 a.m.

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Steelers receiver Antonio Brown was a sixth-round draft pick.  (Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
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