Steelers 2001 Draft Board

Steelers Trade Down; Draft Hampton

With a record low 6 draft choices, the Steelers were looking to obtain more picks. They did just that in round 1, trading down three spots with the New York Jets, who wanted to move up so that they could take Santana Moss. The Steelers got a 4th and 6th round pick. This was a good trade. The players the Steelers originally wanted were already gone, and they knew they could get the same player at #19 as they could at #16. That player was DT Casey Hampton from Texas. He is a big presence (6-1, 320) in the middle of the field. The Steelers desperately needed a lineman, and this was a good draft to get one. Hampton was actually the 7th defensive lineman drafted in the first round. Hampton is described as an "overachiever". He is not necessarily a gifted player but his tenacity has made him a first round pick. That's something you like to see. Hopefully this pick will help improve a very weak line in the run-happy AFC Central. Cowher has already indicated that Hampton will be the starting NT and that Kimo Von Olfenschlogger will move back to his more natural DE position. I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but it should be noted that the Steelers have a long tradition of first round busts at the defensive line position (i.e. Huey Richardson, Aaron Jones, Daryl Simms, ect.). However, those guys were all bums, and Hampton at least seems like he plays with some heart.

In the second round, the Steelers continued to focus on the middle of their defense. They traded up with New England to get Georgia ILB Kendrell Bell, who is described as a very athletic football player. Although they signed Mike Jones last night, the Steelers obviously felt they needed depth in that position. Besides being quick, Bell has a some skill on special teams, blocking several kicks last season for Georgia.

The second day of the draft saw the Steelers fill up on more linemen, this time on both sides of the ball. They got OT Mathias Nkwenti from Temple (I already like saying "Nkwenti") and C Chukwunweza Sonune "Chukky" Okobi from Purdue (he's actually a native of Pittsburgh!). They also picked up another DL, Rodney Bailey from Ohio State (their defensive player of the year in 2000). The other two picks were LB Roger Knight from Wisconsin (we sure liked the Big Ten this year) and WR Chris Taylor from Texas A&M (who runs a 4.3). The one thing all our late round picks seem to have in common is that they are all undersized for their positions. I guess the Steelers are really counting on that new training facility to beef up the draft picks! Or maybe we're just trying to get faster, which couldn't hurt seeing as how we're one of the slowest teams around.

Also on Sunday, QB Scott Mitchell thankfully re-signed with Cincinnati Dumbasses, ending the possibility that he would come here and effectively destroy yet another franchise (special thanks to Dick Lebeau, who did his old team a huge favor by actually talking Mitchell into staying). Apparently the retard Steelers were all surprised and disappointed that they couldn't get the biggest piece of crap QB in the NFL!! I swear I could run this team better than the people in charge right now. So after losing out on the big Mitchell sweepstakes, the Steelers signed Pitt QB John Turman. I went to every Pitt game last year and trust me, Turman is going to have to improve a hell of a lot if he wants to make the team (then again, look at the QB's we have now). Still, I'll take Turman or anyone else over Mitchell. And don't think that just because we didn't get Mitchell I'm not going to hold this against the Steelers. The fact that we even seriously wanted him has to be the dumbest, most disgusting thing I've seen from this franchise since the year we drafted Gabe Rivera over Danny Marino, and I will not forgive them for this anytime soon.

So now that the 2001 draft is over, there really isn't much more to say about the Steelers selections. This year's draft was kind of uneventful for us, seeing as how we had so few picks. One surprise was that we didn't draft any DB's. Our top 4 cornerbacks are free agents after this season, and there was some speculation that we would draft a replacement as high as the first round. I'm kind of glad we didn't. I think our CB situation is better now than it has been for years. Drafting someone in the early rounds would've just been admitting that we can't re-sign Washington, Scott, and Townsend. I'd rather see them focus on getting those guys back, and if we don't, then we have next year's draft to try to get a replacement. Other than that, it does look like they filled their needs on the rest of the defense, and added some depth to the offensive line, but as usual only time will tell how much these players will really contribute.

Related Stuff:

• Steelers draft history



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