2004 NFL Draft

The NFL Draft was this weekend so NFL geeks like me were anxious to see the route our teams would take on Day 1 (Rounds 1, 2 and 3) and Day 2 (Rounds 4 through 7). How did the Steelers do? Better than I thought we’d do, given our history of drafting.

We had the 11th pick overall given our poor record last season (6-10). With that selection we grabbed Miami of Ohio Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The buzz word in the NFL is “upside” and Ben certainly has a lot of it. He’s big; 6’5”, 240lbs and is extremely mobile and athletic. I heard that the basketball team in College wanted him to play point guard, so that sort of explains how gifted this guy is. Big arm, accurate, mobile, but somewhat raw. He’ll probably sit behind Maddox this season and start in 2005. Finally, a “franchise” quarterback.

In the second round, we traded up a few spots to take a Cornerback, Ricardo Colclough. He went to a smaller Division II school but he’s supposed to be really fast and a quick learner. He probably won’t start this season but he could break the starting line-up in a year or two and he’ll probably contribute on punt/kickoff returns this season and on special teams.

In the third round we started addressing our Offensive Line problems. We drafted Max Starks out of Florida. This guy is huge; 6’7”, ~340lbs and played Left Tackle in College. I would imagine we’ll probably try to plug him in at Right Tackle and see how it works. The only knock on him that I’ve heard is that he doesn’t really play mean. Hopefully our coaching staff can fix that. When you’re that size, you should run people over on every play, especially when you’re lined up against Defensive Ends who emphasize more quickness than bulk and strength.

I won’t run through all of the picks because we’d be here for awhile. The other notables are Nathaniel Adibi, who will end up playing Outside Linebacker for us. We also grabbed another Offensive Tackle, Bo Lacy out of Arkansas. Winding up the more interesting picks we grabbed a Tight End out of Penn State, Matt Kranchick who’s really quick and catches the ball well. Unfortunately he can’t block to save his life, and that’s important. He’s a project.

Is it July yet? Training camp should be starting any day now….