Feedback: Steelers draft needs

[aj_law]

The fuck?

Troll cage door came off its hinges again?  The holidays brings 'em out?  Must be the eggnog.

[aj_law]

You know, I tried to come up with a quick ranking of what I thought are the three areas of greatest need for this team and every time I started typing, I wanted to switch up positions.  I think a case could be made for 5 or 6 spots needing immediate infusion of talent. 

Generally speaking though, the area that needs the most help is the defensive side of the ball.  Be it a shutdown corner; a sideline-to-sideline ILB; a run clogging DT; or a ballhawking centerfielder at S, that group needs a gamechanger.  IMO, the only area on the offensive side of the ball that could steal away early spots would be on the OL (surprise) if a player they like slips.  Oh yeah, and TE is always on the radar.

So, if I had to rank 'em and I'm sure this list will change probably more than once between now and April, I'd list 'em like this:

ILB
CB
S
OT/OG
DT

[Steelerdipwad]

Tough to do this without knowing who gets re-signed and who we let go, and who gets signed in free agency. All I can assume right now is that EVERYONE's gone whose contract is up. That would make my needs to be filled either with re-signing our own guys, free agents or draftees:
1. RT (No tackle on the roster that doesn't scare the crap out of me if Colon is gone)
2. FS (The prospect of Mundy here if Clark isn't re-signed scares me more than the prospect of Lewis/Gay/Burnette at CB or Hoke at NT, but not as much as Essex or Hills at RT)
3. CB (Gay may rebound, and Lewis or Burnette might blossom, but it's too important of a position to let it go)
4. NT (Not looking forward to a year with Hoke as the starter at NT with one of the yahoos we have as DE backups being HIS backup, but I don't think he'd be as big of a disaster as the other trouble spots)
5. C (Hartwig consistently gets beat, and I'm hoping Stapleton comes back and moves him out, but we can't take the chance.)
6. ILB (Farrior's replacement needs to be groomed next year. I think Farrior will play better with Troy there, but he is a year from becoming a serious liability)
7. RG (Essex ran neck and neck with Stapleton and Gay as our worst starter last year, but I think Urbik has great feet, ballance, and with a year in the weight room will make a fine LG while our wise new o-line coach makes his first order of business to move Kemo over to the RG spot)
8. RB (Mendenhall can't be asked to carry the thing 390 times, and Moore should be an emergency option only. We need a hybrid pass catching guy who has a nose for the goal line.)
9. TE (Spaeth is a waste of a roster spot. He can't block, so you may as well put a WR in instead of him. We need a second TE in case Miller gets hurt.)
10. WR (We need a 4th receiver option in case Sweed melts down again)
11. QB (Batch is as fragile as a China doll. Dixon ain't ready. We need a veteran as a backup)
12. OLB (We need depth at OLB in case Woodley or Harrison gets hurt. Cowher always had a "Harrison" type on the sidelines, learning the system and chomping at the bit, showing off on special teams. We have nobody like that)
13. SS (Carter shouldn't be our primary backup to Troy. He's not good enough, and he's not a good special teams player when Troy IS playing)
14. LT (If Essex isn't starting at RG, he becomes a waste of a roster spot. I'd love to see someone brought in to compete to be Starks' backup)
15. DE (Ziggy will beat out Keisel IMO, making our backup DE's stronger, and Aaron will be back. It would be nice to have one to compete with the other backups in case Smith breaks down again)