Whoever you think it is..,.you’re all wrong. It will be an “out of left field” project player who MT covets for his back story. The back story will be great though. Great I tell ya.
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The steelers drafts under Tomlin were pretty weak up until Jarvis was taken. He was such an obvious bust that it seems the steelers changed their draft strategy to go more by analytics and sparq scores than by whatever they had been going by. That's how they got Shazier.
But then it seemed they started going more by analytics than by film. The result has been some really good athletes with low football IQs. Sure, they may have good motors and attitudes but no instincts. I'm thinking Dupree, Davis and Burns. They are all great athletes but still make the same mistakes that rookies make.
Another thing those 3 have in common is that the steelers drafted them to play positions other than what they did in college. Burns may have played CB in college but he was just a press corner. Steelers wanted to use some of that but they are still mainly a zone team and Burns just has no feel for it at all.
Same with Dupree and Davis. Dupree may have technically played some LB at Kentucky but he he pretty much just rushed the passer.
Davis played both S and CB and Maryland so he didn't get a chance to master either. To make matters worse, the steelers did the same thing. Burns was injured so they played Davis at CB as a rookie. He did OK but then when Burns was healthy, they moved Davis to S and he was lost. It didn't help that Mike Mitchell would have been his role model. Now this year they have him at Free Safety so he's starting from scratch again.
I still think Davis can be a good player. He does still make mistakes. The Edelmann TD was his fault. But Davis has been moved around so he has a bit of an excuse to still be making mistakes.
This year I want them to draft a guy who has been productive doing the same job the steelers will ask him to do. If it's a DB then i want to see plays on the ball IE interceptions and passes defensed, not just a guy who tackles the catch.
If it's a pass rusher OLB prospect then i want to see sacks where he actually beats an OT with some kind of technique and not just because he's twice as fast as the OT who will be working on Wall Street 2 months later.
If it's an off the ball LB then there better be film of him making plays in coverage and also impact tackles round the line, not 4 yards later.
Does that mean a completely finished product? No. Those guys get picked too high. But it also doesn't mean a project player in the 1st either. This defense now has plenty of depth. They need a playmaker and if they have to trade up to do it then so be it.
