2009 NFL Draft one year later: Pittsburgh Steelers
Coming off a Super Bowl win, and with their first pick deep in the first round, The Pittsburgh Steelers had to draft for need, and take a best player available stance with their picks. However, it seems they may have missed a bit on this draft. With that said it will be very hard to effectively grade this draft until Ziggy Hood becomes a full time starter for them. If he does this draft was above average, if he doesn’t they missed big time. A year ago I gave the Steelers a B+ grade for drafting to their needs, and pulling a draft day trade that landed them a pretty good receiver.
A quick look at the 2009 Steelers draft class:
•Round One (32)- Ziggy Hood DT
•Round Two (79)- Kraig Urbik OG
•Round Three (84)- Mike Wallace WR
•Round Three (96)- Keenan Lewis CB
•Round Five (168)- Joe Burnett CB
•Round Five (169) Frank Summers RB
•Round Six (205)- Ra’Shon Harris DE
•Round Seven (226)- AQ Shipley C
•Round Seven (241)- David Johnson TE
So Hood played in every game, and looks to develop into a starter down the road. Urbik was inactive for every game. Wallace caught 39 passes for 756 yards and six TD’s, he also averaged 26 yards per kickoff return. Lewis had one tackle in four games, while Burnett had 17 tackles in 15 games. Summers spent the season on IR. Harris was cut in training camp. Shipley spent the year with the practice squad. Johnson caught two balls in 15 games.
On the surface that is pretty bad, but Wallace is a big bright spot and if, and when Hood becomes a starter this draft class will look a whole lot better. However, we have to grade on production and so far the production from this class is average at best. One year out let us give this one a C+ grade.
Related Links:
•2009 NFL Draft one year later
•Pittsburgh Steelers news and notes
•2010 NFL Mock Drafts
•2010 NFL team needs
•MTR Football.com
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