Count ESPN writer James Walker as another columnist that loves what the Steelers did over the weekend. Today Walker wrote the following in his column about draft moves made by the AFC North:
Best move
The best move was actually two moves made by the Pittsburgh Steelers. General manager Kevin Colbert and coach Mike Tomlin ignored the team’s most glaring need — offensive line — on Day 1 and opted to go with the best available players. Those two players were Illinois’ Mendenhall at No. 23 and Texas receiver Limas Sweed at No. 53. Both players graded out as first-round talents in most projections, meaning Pittsburgh got tremendous value for its picks.
The Steelers didn’t necessarily need a tailback or a receiver. But pairing Mendenhall with Willie Parker and adding Sweed to the receiving duo of Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes will make defensive coordinators around the league cringe this season.
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smortas
April 29, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I gave the steelers a B- on another blog. I am extremely satisfied with the first two picks the steelers made and believe that 3rd round pick Davis will be a good addition as well. Hills forte is pass blocking so his upside is there as well. The other picks I was more perplexed with. I thought there were a couple of OL or DL that we could have taken over some of the later picks. I am not knocking the other players taken and my feeling is always you never know how good or bad you’ve done until much further down the road. The steelers had red zone trouble most of last year and the additions of sweed and mendenhall should help there tremendously. Go Steelers!!!!
Jay
April 30, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I agree but I am beginning to like the Dixon deal. At first, I thought take Owen Schmitt with that pick (part of me still wishes they had) but if Dixon fully recovers and is as good as they say, we’ll have, at worst, a really, really good back-up. He could even be trade bait down the line if he develops (only thing is, how does he showcase what he has unless Ben gets hurt and none of us wants that). Also, if Hills is 100 % at some point in the next year (nothing tells me he won’t be) and he bulks up and gets stronger without losing speed against edge rushers, we may have ourselves a 1st or 2nd round caliber quality left tackle.