The NFL Draft is anything but an exact science, and the hype surrounding it is a myth.
Mike Tomlin bleats about the Pittsburgh Steelers being “prepared,” but every team is equally prepared. Every team has the same resources, information and video. The only difference is how talent available to be drafted fits with each team.
If each team fired its scouting department and drafted according to the Ourlads guide or using a mock put together by a reasonably educated football mind, the draft wouldn’t go much different.
There aren’t any secrets. It’s not like the Steelers in the ’70s when scout Bill Nunn Jr. was alone in having the inside scoop on players at Black football colleges. These days, everybody knows.
The draft has been generic for almost 50 years. That’s progress, I guess.
The big story of this draft is quarterback fever.
It’s not like 2022, when only one quarterback went in the first round and turned out to be terrible.
There’s talk that quarterbacks might be chosen with the first four picks in this year’s draft, which would be a first.
There’s a good possibility most of the QBs taken will stink. Zach Wilson and Trey Lance went second and third overall in the 2021 draft behind Trevor Lawrence. Wilson and Lance are already with their second teams.
Related:
• Mark Madden: Getting a 1st-round WR makes sense, but the Steelers cling to outdated philosophy
• NFL Draft Guide 2024: Who Steelers might pick, position breakdowns, mock drafts
• Madden Monday: 'Unprofessional, inexcusable' moments that wrecked the Penguins' season
Denver just traded for Wilson. I can’t imagine what prompted a GM to think, “Hey, let’s get Zach Wilson.”
Then again, Steelers GM Omar Khan traded for Justin Fields. THE KHAN ARTIST!
Since 1999, only two out of every five quarterbacks drafted in the first round have turned out to be their franchise’s long-term answer.
Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy brings intrigue to the draft and an overrated skill set.
McCarthy figures to be picked higher than he deserves, perhaps in the top four. He did just win the national championship.
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McCarthy is a “winner.” That’s what athletes who win but can’t really play get labeled. Like how Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic gets called a “battler.”
McCarthy looks the part. He’s nearly 6-foot-3 and weighs 219 pounds.
But he can’t throw outside the numbers, his footwork is questionable and he stares down his first read.
By the way, I gleaned all that from reading scouting reports, not by watching McCarthy, which I pointedly avoided as part of my college football boycott until Pitt and Penn State play each other every year.
McCarthy has “A.J. McCarron” written all over him.
McCarron, too, was a “winner.” But McCarron, who quarterbacked Alabama to two national titles, went in 2014’s fifth round. McCarthy will go in this year’s first round.
McCarron currently plays for the St. Louis Battlehawks of the UFL, who are off to a 3-1 start with McCarron completing over 70% of his passes. It took a while, but McCarron is making an impact. (I don’t watch the UFL, either. Nobody does unless they bet on it.)
The biggest impact players from this year’s draft will be wide receivers: Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. and LSU’s Malik Nabers.
The Steelers likely will mangle the draft. It’s what they do.
Most of their recent high picks were no better than meh, with Kenny Pickett, Chase Claypool and Devin Bush all considerably worse. You think the Steelers are this great organization, but precious little recent evidence supports that.
The Steelers’ depth chart is pathetic on the offensive side of the ball. So don’t be surprised if they take a cornerback in the first round. Anything to dodge the reality of how the NFL is in 2024. “Let’s play elite defense!” Except they don’t.
Sports drafts are a wholly un-American institution.
People are assigned where they have to work. They have no say in the matter.
Legal firms don’t have a draft of lawyers who just passed the bar. Hospitals don’t have a draft of med school graduates.
In the NFL Draft, those taken slot into a predetermined salary.
You can’t play in the NFL when you turn 18. You need to be out of high school for three years.
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The NFL logo should include a hammer and sickle.