The Steelers were so good for so long at picking first-round draft choices, the law of averages was bound to catch up.
And it has.
Because three of their first-round picks over the past six years have not panned out and an injury removed another, the Steelers enter next season with the same high-priority needs they’ve had recently – at linebacker and cornerback.
The failures of outside linebackers Jarvis Jones (2013 draft) and Bud Dupree (2015) and cornerback Artie Burns (2016) to develop to anywhere near their expectations when drafted, along with the spinal injury to inside linebacker Ryan Shazier (2014), have left big holes in their defense.
Imagine how that defense might look today if Shazier had not been injured and Jones, Dupree and Burns played to their draft position. That makes it four straight years of first-round draft choices that either did not or have not come anywhere near expectations or were lost to injury.
They at least would be set at outside linebacker with Dupree and T.J. Watt, inside linebacker with Shazier and Vince Williams, and their two starting cornerbacks with Burns and Joe Haden. They could concentrate their draft/free-agency efforts elsewhere.
Instead, they enter free agency and the draft needing to fill the same positions they’ve been using all those first-round picks on since 2013.
Before that, general manager Kevin Colbert and Co. hit their No. 1 picks out of the park. Their three first-round choices before they ran into a wall with Jarvis Jones were Maurkice Pouncey (2010), Cam Heyward (2011) and David DeCastro (2012). All three became All-Pro.
The only slight disappointment in their first-rounders since 2000 before Jones was Ziggy Hood, and he was far from a bust. He played five years with the Steelers and had a sack in Super Bowl XLV.
They struck gold with virtually the rest of their first-round picks since Colbert joined them in 2000. Three will be strong Hall of Fame candidates – Troy Polamalu (2003), Ben Roethlisberger (2004) and Pouncey. One was a Super Bowl MVP in Santonio Holmes (2006).
Colbert, Mike Tomlin and the rest of their evaluators need to find the magic again.
However, they also find themselves boxed in. When they were hitting it big in the first round, much of it was drafting the best players on their board and not necessarily going for glaring position needs. Of course, they were so good in certain areas back then, the needs weren’t as obvious.
A perfect example came in 2004 when they were about to draft a guard in the first round before Dan Rooney asked them to take a closer look at quarterback. They believed they were solid at quarterback with Tommy Maddox. They wound up drafting Ben Roethlisberger.
Drafting later in the first round also does not help. They do have their highest position (No. 20) in four years, but they also drafted Jones 17th and Dupree was not much lower at 22.
Last May, they exercised Dupree’s fifth-year option at $9.232 million for 2019. They can rescind that, which would make him a free agent. They also could negotiate a multiyear deal with him for much less, since he would not command $9 million a year on the open market.
They must decide whether to exercise Burns’ fifth-year option for 2020 in May. That is expected to cost more than $9 million. But it is only guaranteed through injury and it would buy them another season to see if Burns somehow can become the player they thought they drafted three years ago. If not, they could pull it, although they say they are reluctant to do that after they commit to exercising the option.
Compounding their needs either in free agency or the draft will be the desire to find another halfback with Le’Veon Bell leaving, and they’ll need another top-flight receiver if they trade Antonio Brown.
“Change is going to be a part moving forward,’’ Tomlin said last week. “We are not going to be resistant to change in any facet.”
They have little choice because if they don’t change, they’ll wind up watching the playoffs on TV again next season.
First Published: January 10, 2019, 1:00 p.m.
