Steelers MMQB: NFL Draft Weekend Wrap Up
By Kim Myers
May 8, 2014; New York, NY, USA; Ryan Shazier (Ohio State) poses for a photo with commissioner Roger Goodell after being selected as the number fifteen overall pick in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Radio City Music Hall. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
What We Learned This Week in NFL Draft Weekend:
- Former Pitt QB Tom Savage drafted by Houston at #135 overall
- Browns WR Josh Gordon facing season-long suspension
- Steelers said to have snagged Shazier from Cowboys
- Steelers draft class includes potential starters
What a spectacle the NFL Draft has become. From moving to prime time to a red carpet intro to walk-out music for draft picks this thing has become a bigger television show than even I thought it could. For all the build-up, however, the drama didn’t disappoint as the first round of the draft had all kinds of twist, turns and surprises sure to entertain even casual NFL fans. Now that the dust has settled on the draft, let’s take some cheap shots and see what’s going on around the league.
After the Houston Texans made Jadeveon Clowney the first overall pick in the NFL draft, they took a while to address their glaring need at the quarterback position. The Texans used a compensatory pick in the third round to select University of Pittsburgh’s Tom Savage with the 135th pick. Savage only played one season for the Panthers as he started at Rutgers and then went to Arizona before eventually transferring to Pitt. His draft value had gone up and down in the months leading up to the draft but at least at this point in Houston one thing is for sure, their defense is going to be pretty good.
The Cleveland Browns sure did have a Brownish draft weekend. After spending the first round trading up and down and then grabbing Johnny Football, they failed to draft a wide receiver the entire weekend. That put them in quite a precarious position now that reports are that Josh Gordon could be facing a season-long suspension after another failed drug test months ago. ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” is reporting that Gordon tested positive for marijuana. The Browns responded by not drafting a single wide receiver but picking up for undrafted rookie wide receivers to hopefully be targets for either Hoyer or Manziel to throw to. Too bad for Gordon, who had a monster season last year. He’s facing a season-long suspension for testing positive for marijuana. Here’s a list of things Gordon could have done instead of smoking weed and the NFL would have been perfectly ok with it:
- Driving drunk
- Driving drunk multiple times
- Driving drunk multiple times and getting into multiple accidents, possibly harming other people
- Getting caught with illegal weapons
- Get caught with illegal weapons while driving drunk
- Beating your girlfriend/wife/fiancé
- Beat your girlfriend/wife/fiance while driving drunk
- Dragging the unconscious girlfriend/wife/fiancé through an elevator on camera
Maybe he could find a new hobby from those NFL-approved choices and wouldn’t have to worry about suspensions any longer.
The Ryan Shazier pick for the Steelers certainly surprised a lot of people when they made him their first pick, but apparently they had to grab the linebacker because he was on the phone with the Cowboys when the Steelers were on the clock. The Cowboys had the 16th pick. According to Chris Wesseling of Around the League, the Steelers had targeted CB Justin Gilbert and Odell Beckham and when they had already been picked, they zeroed in on Shazier.
"“He’s a defensive playmaker. Bigger than positional needs, what we needed was a defensive playmaker.” – Mike Tomlin"
The biggest complaints about the Steelers’ draft pick choices from fan perspectives seem to be that they don’t expect any of these guys to see the field anytime soon. That’s going to be far from the case, according to Ed Bouchette of the PPG. He thinks the theme of this year’s Steelers draft should be, “Welcome to the Steelers; yes you can start for us this season.” With adding players like Shazier, Tuitt, and Bryant, the Steelers are not shy about saying how these guys have the potential to come in and instantly contribute to the team, something that hasn’t necessarily been the case in years past.
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