Pittsburgh Steelers: The 2018 NFL Draft Report Card
By Erik Lambert
The Pittsburgh Steelers 2018 NFL draft report card like most others. It reflects a team that aims to build their future through the draft.
They’ve done it with great success for years but this feels like one of their more important runs. They went 13-3 last year and were bounced from the playoffs in the opening round in a humiliating 45-42 loss at home to a Jacksonville Jaguars team that is looking even stronger now than last season. If they want to keep up, Pittsburgh needed to do well in this draft.
Do the grades reflect as much? Of course, time will ultimately tell but it certainly looks like Steelers had one of their more interesting drafts in recent memory. Not good. Not bad. Just interesting.
1st Round: Terrell Edmunds (S, Virginia Tech) – D
There is an underlying belief among draft people that one must not try to play by the rules of other teams. If there’s a guy on your board you believe is going to be a star, then the grades of everybody else doesn’t matter. Take him. However, then there’s the reality of value picking. While taking your guy isn’t a bad thing, the fact you probably could’ve waited for at least one round and gotten another really good player as a bonus makes the pick look worse.
That’s the general feeling with Terrell Edmunds. Nobody denies he’s an exceptional athlete with major upside. He’s fast, can jump through the roof and isn’t afraid to play near the line of scrimmage. The problem is he’s inconsistent and raw in a lot of areas. His tackling alone is a concern. Most projections had him going somewhere around the 4th round. This means the Steelers stood a more than reasonable chance of getting him in the 2nd round if they’d wished. Not the best example of playing the board.