NFL Draft Preview - Pittsburgh Steelers

Pittsburgh Steelers - Bill Cowher

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in a good spot at number 30 . . . if by some chance a player slides, the Steelers could be there waiting with open arms to grab him . . . who could forget when the Miami Dolphins snatched up a quarterback named Marino late in the first round after he kept sliding . . .

Otherwise, the Steelers need to improve their cornerbacks . . . Deshea Townsend and Willie Williams are the starters and second year corner Ricardo Colclough is a future starter . . . but the Steelers are one injury away from trouble at this position . . . and who is to say that Townsend and Williams play as well as they did last year . . .

The two studs coming out of college at the corner position are Pac Man Jones from West Virginia and Antrel Rolle from Miami – these guys will be long gone by the time Pittsburgh selects at number 30 . . . Auburn’s Carlos Rogers is the next rated corner, however some pre-draft sheets have Rogers being taken as early as number 15 to Kansas City and as late as the last pick in the first round . . . more than likely Rogers will be off the board by number 30 . . . if he is there – take him!!

That leaves Bill Cowher with a plethora of next level corners such as Fabian Washington, Marlin Jackson, Justin Miller, and Eric Green . . . because of the depth at this position in the draft, the Steelers may go another direction if Rogers if off the board and wait to snag a corner later in the draft . . .

Mel Kiper has the Steelers taking tight end Heath Miller from Virginia . . . however, I can see Cowher rolling the dice here and reaching a bit to take the multi-talented Matt Jones from Arkansas . . . Jones, who is 6-6 and ran the 40 in 4.40, was a quarterback at Arkansas and is projected as either a tight end or wide receiver in the NFL . . . a few months ago Jones was looking at being selected in the fifth round, but he has been impressive in individual workouts . . . he is a work in progress, but the type of player Cowher likes ala Slash Stewart, Hines Ward, and Antwaan Randle El . . .

The Steelers go with Jones here . . .

As far as addressing their need at corner, the Steelers can draft some raw talent later in draft by taking someone like Karl Paymah from Washington State or Stanford Routt from Houston . . . both players have size and great speed . . . there is also Daven Holley from Cincinnati . . . remember, last year in the second round Pittsburgh took Colclough from a little known school . . .

I see the Steelers draft shaking down like this:
30th pick - Matt Jones, wr/te, Arkansas
62nd pick - best cornerback
93rd pick - best running back

Next I preview the defending champion New England Patriots