In about a month, the front office of the Steelers, along with the coaching staff, are going to hit the war room to begin selecting the best eight NCAA Football players they can, to put them back on the road to Super Bowl contention. What makes this draft perhaps more critical than any in recent memory, is that almost all of the talent from the 2008-2009 draft classes were allowed to walk away during the first week and a half of free agency. Mike Wallace, Rashard Mendenhall and Keenan Lewis, who were key contributors to the Steelers, will be suiting up for new teams next year, leaving holes on the depth chart that need to be filled. The most critical areas of need for the Steelers are Outside Linebacker, Inside Linebacker, Wide Receiver and Cornerback, positions where the Steelers have parted ways with three starters. Running Back could also be included as a position of need as well, but with a healthy Offensive Line, I believe that Jonathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman could hold down the fort for another season. Let's go over the positions of need that the team currently has and take a look at some of the players who could be available when they make their first selection at 17.
Outside Linebacker:
James Harrison, who had what is considered the best defensive play in Super Bowl history, when he returned an interception off Kurt Warner for 100 yards and a touchdown to end the first half of Super Bowl XLIII, was released when he refused a paycut, creating a need for a pass rusher on the opposite side of LaMarr Woodley to take the pressure and double teams off of him. The depth of this position in this years draft makes it a good year to have this need and here are some of the players who could be available when it's the Steelers turn to pick in the first round.
Jarvis Jones: While only at Georgia for two years after transferring from USC, Jones made in impact, leading the SEC in sacks in both of his seasons. In 2012, Jarvis set a Georgia record for sacks with 14.5 and was named the SEC Defensive Player of the year. The biggest question mark about Jarvis is that following a neck injury during his freshman year at USC, he was diagnosed with Spinal Stenosis, a narrowing of the spine. While that is a concern, Jones showed durability in the physically toughest conference in college football.
Ezekiel Ansah: A rising star at BYU, Ansah initially went there to run track but was soon drawn to play football. Going into the 2012 season, with zero career starts, Ziggy had a total of 10 tackles. Although he finished this season with only 4.5 sacks, his star rapidly started to rise at the Senior Bowl where he drew comparisons to Jason Pierre-Paul. Being so new he is considered very raw but with a very high ceiling.
Dion Jordan: Jordan has tremendous athletic ability and was initially recruited by Oregon as a Tight End before being switched to the defense. Dion's versatility allowed him, this past season, to line up defensive end, rush outside linebacker where he also covered slot receivers. With his size and athletic ability, when I watched him, he reminded me of a young Jason Taylor.
Barkevious Mingo: What is going to get Mingo picked early on will be his physical tools more than anything he has done on the field. Like Ansah he started off as a track athlete and only started playing football his final two years of high school. At LSU, he only started 15 games in three seasons and in 2012 he earned second-team All-SEC honors despite having 4.5 sacks. He did dominate the first half of the Chick-fil-A Bowl before leaving with the flu.
Brandon Jenkins: Prior to the start of the 2012 season, Jenkins had 21.5 sacks in the previous two seasons. He is coming off a Lisfranc injury that took him out of Florida State's opening game. How healthy he is will affect how far he falls in the draft.
Cornerback:
Secondary is another big concern for the Steelers, mainly at cornerback, with a declining Ike Taylor, who is 33 and coming off of a broken ankle and the departure of cornerback Keenan Lewis to free agency. The starter opposite of Taylor will be Cortez Allen, who was a turnover machine the final month of the season. The Steelers have brought back nickel cornerback Willie Gay after one miserable season in Arizona, behind him are untested Josh Victorian and DeMarcus Van Dyke. While there is no clear cut blue chip prospect in this draft, there is a decent amount of depth.
Dee Milliner: Considered the best cornerback in this draft, Milliner has good size and plays very physically. He has good ball skills, finishing his three years at Alabama with seven interceptions and he isn't intimidated by bigger receivers. What is keeping him from really being considered an elite cornerback is that he doesn't have great speed, but from what I have seen, he's fast enough.
Xavier Rhodes: He was recruited to play wide receiver and ended up being switched to play cornerback and finished with eight career interceptions in his three years at Florida State. He is physical and will hold receivers up at the line of scrimmage messing up their timing with the quarteback.
Jonathan Banks: He started out as a safety in 2009 with his big moment being his two interception game against Tim Tebow, both of which he returned for touchdowns. In 2010 Banks moved to cornerback for the rest of his college career. He had at least four interceptions in each season for Mississippi State. He is my favorite cornerback in this draft and even though he ain't the fastest of cornerbacks, he is a ball hawk.
David Amerson: After a 2011 season that saw him pick off 13 passes, his total for 2012 dropped to five. He has good size at 6'2" and 195 lbs and enough speed to hang with most wide receivers.
Wide Receiver:
Wide receiver has become an issue for the Steelers with the loss of Mike Wallace and his mind blowing speed to free agency and the potential loss of Emmanuel Sanders. Losing Sanders as well would leave Pittsburgh with Antonio Brown, Jericho Cotchery, and Plaxico Burress as guys with any real experience, so the Steelers are going to have to find Ben at least two more receivers, of which there is plenty of quality in this draft. Here are a few who would look great wearing the Black n'Gold.
Corderrelle Patterson: He was a JUCO transfer who only played one year at Tennessee, but in his single season he managed to find the endzone in four different ways, rushing, receiving and on a punt and a kickoff return. In my opinion he is already a better route runner than Mike Wallace and possesses the speed to get deep as well. This is the guy to replace Wallace with and at 6'3" and 205 lbs, he has great size.
Robert Woods: From the moment he got to USC, he had an impact on their offense. He has good size at 6'1" and 190 lbs and is said to be "the most polished route runner in the draft". My concern would be that he only averaged 11.2 yards per catch his last to years, but that could be a result of the the routes he was asked to run.
Keenan Allen: He has good speed and is another good route runner. He is also big, at 6'3" and 210 lbs. He broke DeSean Jackson's freshman record for receptions and yardage and followed that up in his sophmore year by being named a first-team All-Pac-12 selection after catching 98 passes for 1, 343 yards. He was recruited by Nick Saban at Alabama but chose California to play with his brother.
Others to watch: Justin Hunter (Tennessee), Da'Rick Rogers (Tennessee Tech), DeAndre Hopkins (Clemson)
Inside Linebacker:
With the uncertain status of ILB Sean Spence and Larry Foote being resigned surely out of desperation, the Steelers also have a need and depth issues at inside linebacker. There are a few that I really like in this draft and this just might be the deepest position in the draft where the Steelers can set themselves up nicely for the future.
Alec Ogletree: In my opinion, he is the best inside linebacker in this draft and may have been a better playmaker for Georgia than Jarvis Jones and should actually be the Steelers first pick at 17. He is athletic and versatile enough to play both inside and outside linebacker and reminds me a lot of......yes, Greg Lloyd with the violent way he gets after it. Despite being suspended the first four games of this past season for a violation of team rules, he still finished with 111 tackles. He's been durible at Georgia except for a broken foot that caused him to miss part of the 2011. Was recruited to Georgia as a safety.
Manti Te'o: Forget his fake girlfriend and his disappearing act in the National Championship game, that was Alabama's doing, Te'o can play football. He is smart and has a nose for the football. He has a hard time, at times, of getting of blocks but for the most part, he is where he needs to be making plays and rarely makes mistakes.
Kevin Minter. He is the best player on the LSU defense. He is a first team All-American and played his best in big games. He was co-SEC Defensive Player of the Week against Florida and against Clemson he set a school Bowl record of 19 tackles with 1.5 for losses. He plays with lots of intensity and rarely is out of position.
Others to watch: Nico Johnson ( Alabama), Kiko Alonso (Oregon), Jonathan Stewart (Texas A&M)
If I'm making the pick for the Steelers, I would go with Alec Ogletree if he's available at 17, unless Cordarrelle Patterson falls as well, but either way the Steelers can't go wrong. The Steelers are lucky in the fact that this draft is deep enough to fix quite a few of their needs and allow them to add some depth as well with their eight picks. This, however, is not the time to make one of those projection picks a la Alonzo Jackson, every selection has to be a player who can potentially contribute something positive this year, especially on the defensive side of the ball due to the increasing age of that unit. This is absolutely one draft that Kevin Colbert has to hit on as deep as the talent is, because even though we'd like to win now, the long term success of this team could be at stake if he fails to get an infusion of young talent in April.