Attention, all personnel men in love with Alabama running back Trent Richardson high in the first round: Following a regular season in which none of the six leading rushers in football were drafted in the first round, here were the five leading rushers over the weekend: Player, Team Rushes Yards Rookie year, draft status College Arian Foster, Texans 24 153 2009, undrafted Tennessee Isaac Redman, Steelers 17 121 2009, undrafted Bowie (Md.) State Brandon Jacobs, Giants 14 92 2005, round 4 (110) Southern Illinois Pierre Thomas, Saints 8 66 2007, undrafted Illinois Ahmad Bradshaw, Giants 14 63 2007, round 7 (250) Marshall As we look ahead to the divisional round, here's an interesting note about the final eight teams left in the Super Bowl derby: Only one, Denver, starts a first-round running back ... and Willis McGahee's on his third team, in the twilight. Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me Thanks to Mike Florio for sending me scurrying to the 2010 draft, and the incredible tributaries from a single late-round trade. It just shows how smart Pittsburgh director of football operations Kevin Colbert is. In 2009, the Jets traded fourth- and fifth-round picks to the Eagles for cornerback Lito Sheppard and a fifth-round pick in the 2010 draft, the 155th overall pick. In 2010, the Steelers traded wide receiver Santonio Holmes to the Jets for that fifth-round pick, the 155th in the draft. The Steelers took that 155th selection on draft weekend and traded it to Arizona for cornerback Bryant McFadden and a sixth-round pick -- the 195th overall. With the 195th pick, Pittsburgh chose wide receiver/kick returner Antonio Brown. In 2010, McFadden started all 16 regular-season games at left cornerback for Pittsburgh's Super Bowl team. In 2011, Brown started at wide receiver for the Steelers, finishing 15th in the league with 1,108 receiving yards, while being one of the best punt- and kick-returners in the league -- 10.8 yards per punt return, 27.3 yards per kick return. He's the first player in the history of the NFL to have more than 1,000 yards receiving and returning in the same year. Colbert turned a late fifth-round pick into one Super Bowl starter and one long-term explosive receiver and returner. That's a valuable personnel man.
The problem is, is that we’ve tried drafting RB’s in the middle rounds, hoping we could break gold like the eagles did with McCoy, Ravens did with Rice, Jags did with MJD, Chiefs did with Charles, Texans did with Foster... the list goes on. The FO just hasnt been able to find our great RB in the mid rounds. They’ve invested 4 picks in the last 3 years on RB’s and none have shown glipses of greatness. IMO, Trent Richardson is going to be a great player. I dont really care much of 1st round vs later round RB’s that are successful... My money would be on him being successful.
What is the point of even drafting a RB at all then, right!? Clearly great ones can be found as UDFA. Let's just do that
Lets ignore that the majority of 5th round picks have very short lived careers. The fact that a few gems were found is a nice thing for the steelers, but they have a very long history of very good (if not sometimes down right deciteful in the Stallworth case lol) scouting. We drafted a guy in the 4th in 2010 that led the NFL in KO return average this past season. No he's not a great back, but an explosive returner and every bit as good as brown. Or ability to find mid round talent is hot and cold, much like the rest of the NFL. As for running backs, I don't see McKnight as a good between the tackles guy. He's got the speed but his frame just looks too wirey to handle that much abuse week in and week out. Greene is a strong, one Cut, down hill runner. He's not goign to get many explosive plays, but has decent vision and punishes the defense. I want to see more of Powell, but Rex has shown a strong tendancy to not trust rookie backs (Greene, McKnight, and now Powell have all seen little action in year one under him). Another back would be good. Richardson, at our pick, would be an amazing value talent wise. Its a true case of BPA if he's there and we take him. He does not fit a glaring need, but is jsut that much more talented than anyone on the board or on our team at the position. I would love a OLB, OL, or receiver in round one, but I'm not going to come away bitching if we were to draft him. I really belive he goes in the top ten though.
+1, as much as I would love Richardson, I would never advocate trading up for hum nor do I see him falling to the Jets at 16
Ultimately a team can find a pro bowler at any position late in the draft/in UDFA. That said, it's just one hell of a lot easier to do it early.
