Steeler Pre-Draft Visits

Boy, do I hate the offseason. Not a whole lot goes on in the NFL around now. Yeah, Donovan McNabb got traded, but the exact same amount of people in Philly are pissed off at him anyway. I swear, McNabb is more polarizing in Philadelphia than Jesus Christ was in the Roman Empire. After the jump, we’ll go over what the Steelers have been up to for the past week or so.

Donovan McNabb wasn’t the only player to move into the nation’s capital recently. Our old friend Willie Parker also signed a one-year deal with the burgundy and gold. Now, I’ve given Willie a lot of heat during his tenure here, mostly for his inconsistency, bad hands, and complete inability to avoid a wayward mosquito making a tackle, but it’s still an eerie feeling to know he’ll be suiting up in a different uniform next season.

Oh well. We have Rashard ready to take the reins, and giving Parker any sum of money has Dan Snyder’s stench on it anyway.

Enough of the past. Looking into the future (as in like, two weeks), the Steelers brought in some pre-draft prospects for visits. Here’s a quick list:

1. Dez Bryant, WR, Oklahoma State
2. Golden Tate, WR, Notre Dame
3. LaGarrette Blount, RB, Oregon
4. Koa Misi, LB, Utah
5. Adrian Tracy, LB, William & Mary
6. Bryan Bulaga, OL, Iowa
7. Brandon Ghee, DB, Wake Forest
8. Eric Norwood, LB, South Carolina
9. Nolan Carroll, CB, Maryland
10. Kareem Jackson, CB, Alabama
11. Kyle Wilson, CB, Boise State
12. Joe Webb, WR, Alabama-Birmingham
13. Albert McClellan, LB, Marshall
14. Jacques McClendon, OG, Tennessee
15. Roger Saffold, OT, Indiana
16. Michael Neal, DL, Purdue
17. Chris DeGeare, OG, Wake Forest
18. Darrell Stuckey, S, Kansas
19. Navarro Bowman, LB, Penn State

I like the amount of DBs the Steelers are bringing in. They know they need help and they’re going to address it in the draft to get younger. What I don’t like: a real lack of defensive lineman so far. That’s going to be a problem sooner rather than later and I’d be a lot more fond of filling depth on the D-line in this year’s draft.

What I REALLY don’t like: Golden Tate and Dez Bryant. I don’t see either of them coming to Pittsburgh as it stands, but lets be serious. Is there really a need at WR? Is the group of Ward, Holmes, Wallace, and Randle El that unreliable? If we wanted an inexperienced player to sit on the bottom of the depth chart and do nothing, we’d have drafted Limas Sweed.

Oh, wait. (Webb doesn’t bother me. He played QB in college and we know the Steelers like that. So do I.)

A couple of linebackers on that list doesn’t hurt, considering this is Pittsburgh and we can never have enough linebackers. Especially one from Penn State (which, being a Pitt student, is hard for me to even type). The only other thought provoking player is Blount. RB is an unsung need on the team with Parker’s departure and no real insurance beyond Mewelde Moore. Though with the Steelers developing their own set of character issues as a team (I’d have posted my thoughts on that but so has every other blog), I don’t know that Blount would really be the boost the Steelers need to regain their upstanding image that Art Rooney so carefully crafted.

Unless they decided to put him in a #47 jersey. That would make everything absolutely okay and I’d be his biggest fan.

Lucky for me, the draft falls during finals week at Pitt, so it’s going to be a little bit rough to cover it. I will do everything in my power, but being an engineering major is hard. Now my laptop is dying and I have a Calc exam in just over twelve hours, so I’ve got to get back to work.

Here We Go. (And go Penguins and Pirates, by the way. We love us some Pittsburgh sports around here and while the NFL is sitting around doing nothing, two other leagues are in full force in this city. Give ’em some love)