How important is the player you pick in the first-round of the draft?
Let’s take a look at the Steelers.
They haven’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season and going back to 2015, they’ve had only one (T.J. Watt) successful first-round draft pick.
Let’s take a look:
2015: LB Bud Dupree
2016: CB Artie Burns
2017: Watt
2018: S Terrell Edmunds
2019: LB Devin Bush
2020: No Pick
2021: RB Najee Harris
2022: QB Kenny Pickett
2023: OT Broderick Jones
2024: OT Troy Fautanu
Yikes.
Dupree had a good last season in Pittsburgh, Burns was a bust, Edmunds was okay but not a first-rounder, Bush was a bust, Harris: good but not a first-rounder, Pickett didn’t work out in Pittsburgh, Jones has struggled but can turn it around and Fautanu was hurt last year.
Going 1-for-10 is not going to win you a championship.
“10 years of draft and one good pick,” said Andrew Fillipponi. “This is very Browns-like, this is what gets the Browns in the predicament they’re in, when you draft like ass.”
“That’s why Mike Tomlin’s assertion that Aaron Rodgers is going to turn things around, no he’s not, because the rest of the team isn’t good enough because of stuff like this,” added Poni.
Now, let’s take a look at the start of the century and the Steelers’ first-round draft picks:
2001: Casey Hampton, 2002: Kendall Simmons, 2003: Troy Polamalu, 2004: Ben Roethlisberger, 2005: Heath Miller, 2006: Santonio Holmes.
It was a streak of 1s like that, that lead to three Super Bowl appearances and two championships.
If the Steelers want to seriously climb the “Stairway to 7” they need to get it right on Thursday night.