Stillers’ 2004 Draft Synopsis

Stillers� 2004 Draft Synopsis

 

My esteemed colleagues (Phantom, Hammer, and Haven) have done a superb job of analyzing the Stillers� draft.� In fact, if you haven�t read their gems already, please do so, especially because there�s no need for this writer to reiterate their astute reasoning and analysis.�

 

My comments will simply highlight overarching, macro-level issues -- positive and negative -- regarding each draft pick.�

 

1.� Ben Roth - This was a very astute, BPA selection, which I�ve long advocated, rather than reaching to fill a need.�

 

����������� Upside to this pick:� The Stillers have, for far too long, treated the QB position with the same disdain that most teams treat their 3rd string FB.� You can�t rely on 5th, 6th, and 7th round draftees, as well as undrafted FAs, to fill the very most critical position in all of team sports.�

 

����������� Downside:� Unbelievably, Steeler fans are clamoring as to when Roth will see his first regular season playing time.� Hey, first things first -- you can�t play if you�re not signed to a contract.� I�ll be absolutely stunned if Roth is signed before the start of training camp.� The media has bandied about signing bonus numbers of, ��somewhere between $7 and $9 million�.� Trust me, Rooney is thinking $7M -- if not lower -- while Roth�s agent, Leigh Steinberg, has to be frothing over his idea of Roth�s signing bonus, which will be proposed at $9M or more.� The difference doesn�t sound like much, but remember -- this is an organization that ran off sure-fire Hall of Famer Rod Woodson after being a whopping $75K apart in contract negotiations.� $2M is a lot of buck, and you can bet good money that Roth will miss the first week of camp, if not a few more weeks thereafter.� You�d have to be a pipe dreamer of epic proportions to expect Roth in camp on Day 1.� Anyone who doesn�t see this train wreck has to be blind, stubborn, and stupid�.or in other words, possessing the same attributes as Billy Cowher.�

 

����������� Bear in mind, though, that Roth�s primary job in 2004 will be to tote the clipboard and learn the terminology and scheme, and little more.� His time for competition will be 2005, not �04.�

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2.� Ricardo Colclough - Coke has high potential, but this is the type of boom-or-bust pick that the Stillers have traditionally busted on (see Shields, Scott), or at best have gotten marginal productivity (see Randle El, Antwan).� He may have been the BAA (best athlete available), but perhaps not the BPA.� This may very well have been the case of a rabid-reach-to fill-the-need, rather than BPA.�

 

����������� Upside: Loads of raw potential.�

 

����������� Downside:� Coming from a twerpy little program in Division 2, it�s an absolutely absurd pipe dream to think that Coke will be given any kind of meaningful playing time on defense in 2004.� Even in 2005, it�s highly probable that we�ll be fed the familiar Cowshit mantra of, �He�s still trying to get a feel for the scheme�.� I�m utterly amazed at how many Steeler fans think this guy is going to add anything to the defense in 2004.� This is a team that has notoriously rotted the likes of Porter, Haggans, and Jackson -- all of whom started multiple years at major Div. 1 schools -- yet they think Ricky Ricardo from Podunk Tech in Tennessee is going to burst onto the scene of a team -- a team that treats rookies with outright disdain -- and make some sort of impact on the defense.� Troy Pola was a consensus All-American safety from USC, one of the premier Div. 1 college programs in the country, and he was deemed totally unworthy and unable to grasp the Stiller defense until December�yet folks think Ricky Ricardo from Podunk U. is going to grasp the Steelers� trigonometric defense?�� Patently absurd.� Ricky should help on spec teams -- if he�s even allowed to dress for games -- but he won�t sniff the field on defense unless a hideous rash of injuries hits the roster.�

 

����������� Furthermore, the loss of the 4th round pick (used to trade up for Ricardo) really exacerbates this selection, as noted quite astutely by Phantom and Hammer in their articles.�

 

3.� Max Starks - Maxwell comes from the Fla. Gator program, where he compiled a solid career as a 3-year starter.��

 

����������� Upside:� Massive size (6-7�, 343 lbs.) with great wingspan and framelength.� Played and produced at a major college program that runs a pro-style offense in one of the toughest conferences in the land.�

 

����������� Downside:� Unbelievably, Starks, too, is being clamored and frothed over, and supposedly he�ll easily win the starting at RT job for this upcoming season.� This is no less preposterous than, say, claiming that Mike Schneck will start at right tackle.��

 

Starks is considered to be a 3L kind of player -- a loafing, lumbering lunger.� That�s not good at all, especially given a Stiller coaching staff that still has problems keeping 5th-year veteran Marvel Smith from lunging like a complete boob.�

 

����������� The correlating concern is this:� Starks is the ninth offensive tackle to be picked since Billy Cowher became coach in 1992. Of those, six have been selected in the third round or higher. But only two -- Leon Searcy (No. 1 in 1992) and Marvel Smith (No. 2 in 2000) -- developed into starters.� When you throw in guards and center, you see that Billy Cowher has developed all of 3 draft picks into regular, capable O-line starters: Searcy, Faneca, and Smith.� All 3 were can�t-misses who required no more than about 45 minutes of coaching to be ready for the starting chores in the NFL.� Read that again: in 12 (twelve) years of drafting, Billy Cowher has developed exactly 3 starting linemen, and all 3 were super-highly regarded lineman that required an extreme minimum of coaching and development.� Smith, in fact, is still only a slightly above-average RT, so it�s not like he�s set the NFL on fire.� Some will attempt to bring up Brendan PigStai as a draftee who capably started.� PigStai was a starter for a couple years, but he wallowed like a pig in mud during his hideous starting tenure, and only a complete dearth of any other capable linemen allowed The Pig to start as many games as he did.� Lest I forget to note, PigStai never improved his game � not even a single ounce -- upon completing his rookie season, which is a sad but stark indictment of the Stiller coaching staff.�

 

����������� The reason for this piss-poor crop of O-line starters?� Quite obviously, it�s the Stillers� pedagogical approach, which has been and is an outright fiasco.� They do absolutely nothing to train, inculcate, prepare, and groom young linemen for future NFL success.� N-O-T-H-I-N-G.� Aside from the 3 aforementioned mega-high draft picks, Billy Cowher has gotten NOTHING from other drafted offensive lineman.� Billy has had to perennially rely on graybeards that were there before he arrived -- Dawson, Justin Strelz, et al -- or FA pickups like Wolford, Love, Newberry, Myslinkski, Gandy, Hartings, et al.� There are public schools in the most wretched of city ghettos across America that provide a better training ground and better supervision for their students than does the Stiller coaching staff.� Pedagogically speaking, the Stillers are an abject failure.�

 

����������� Ergo, expecting Max Starks -- the lumbering lunger that he is -- to come in and start at RT at an effective level of play is a just as an outrageous a pipe dream as expecting Roth to sign prior to camp or Ricardo to get some meaningful PT on defense.� This isn�t to say Starks can�t come in and start at the NFL level; rather, it�s to say that, given this team�s hideous pedagogical approach, Starks has no chance to do so before, say, 2006.�

 

4.� No pick -- pick was traded in order to move up and select Colclough.

 

5.� Nat Adibi - I really like the pick.� Adibi played in a major program and was a good �backer and a good spec teamer.� Has great speed and strength.�

 

����������� Upside: If permitted to dress, could help the spec teams, which, on a Billy Cowher coached team, are always in desperate need of help.� Adibi will discover, of course, the vast difference between a spec teams genius (Va Tech coach Frank Beamer) and a spec teams bonehead (Billy Cowher).�

 

����������� Downside:� Is all but doomed to bench rot for the 2004 season, if not 2005 as well.� Adibi will quickly learn (as will Colclough) the harsh reality of Billy Cowher�s TVS -- Trusted Veteran�s Status.� In a nutshell, TVS� is the syndrome in which, once a veteran gains Billy�s trust and confidence, that veteran is entrenched as deeply as a tenured, unionized American schoolteacher.� DeShea Townsend was never able to gain TVS until 2003 -- and thus was never able to supplant TVS-tenured players like DeWayne WashedUp and Charred Scott -- but now that he�s achieved the lofty TVS, he�s firmly entrenched and is the apple of Billy�s eye.��

 

����������� Adibi will sit behind (amongst others) Clark Haggans, who now has some slight TVS, but for years rotted on the pine because he hadn�t the TVS and Big Jason GilDong did.� Joey Porter had no TVS as a rookie, and thus had to waste a year of his career sitting behind Carla Emmons, who, despite horribly mediocre play, had gained the grand stature of TVS.�

 

6a.� Bo Lacy.� A real scrapper and brawler from Arkansas.� I like this pick.�

 

����������� Upside:� Has the kind of rapid learning ability and gritty style of play that could enable him, not Starks, to be the starting RT.� In fact, if I had to lay down money on either of these 2 rookies to start at RT, my money would be on Bo.� Big Bo doesn�t have the upside that Starks does, but he can contribute earlier than the lumbering lunger.�

 

����������� Downside:� As noted above, Bo has 2 large obstacles in his way:�

 

����������� a.� Cowher has never groomed and developed a starting O-lineman with this low of pedigree.

 

����������� b.� TVS will mandate that Fordham and Ross get the starting nod -- or even a roster spot -- long before Bo.��

 

6b.� Matt Kranchick.�� This was all but a wasted pick.� The Stillers treat their TE like a glorified 3rd tackle.� All they care about is the guy�s blocking, and Matt isn�t a strong blocker at all.�

 

����������� Upside:� Good size and pass-catching ability.

 

����������� Downside:� A weak blocker.� And, a pass-catching attribute for a Stiller TE is like virtue for a whore.��

 

6c.� Drew Caylor.�� While other teams spend the offseason upgrading key components that play 55 snaps a game, the Stillers have spent free agency, and now the draft, trying to make miniscule upgrades to punting and long snapping.�

 

����������� Upside:� Could save the Stillers a roster spot if he can serve at another spot in addition to long-snapper.�

 

����������� Downside:� Offensive line??�� The Stillers have had trouble developing the likes of Marvel Smith, and their pedagogical follies are going to develop this guy into a capable reserve?�� Preposterous.� On top of that, recently re-signed LS Mike Schneck has TVS and Caylor will have to somehow overcome that, which is probably a bridge too far.� Considering all of this, the Stillers would have been better off drafting Drew Carey.�

 

7.�� Eric Taylor.� Love the pick.� Most likely the best value -- aside from Roth -- in the entire Stiller draft.�

 

����������� Upside:� Squatty, hard-nosed run-stopper who fits perfectly in the 3-4 nose.�

 

����������� Downside:� At this point of the draft, absolutely none.� Although Kendick Clancy has some TVS, it will be a travesty if Taylor excels at camp and is then discarded instead of Clancy, who has been an outright failure at NT.��

 

 

(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- the only nationally read coverage on the Pittsburgh Stillers that has accurately predicted the how's and the why's of the past 3 Stiller playoff losses�.)