Coming into day 2, the Steelers still needed to fill the needs at corner and at the offensive line. If the Steelers had any desire to take Miami corner Brandon Harris that notion was squashed when the Texans traded up ahead of the Steelers in the second round and snatched him up. Did this change who they were going to draft in the second round – only the front office can tell us later.
However, it seemed that since Harris was gone the next highest valued player on the board to fill the team’s needs was Florida OT/G Marcus Gilbert. Gilbert played with the Pouncey twins and is actually very good friends with Maurkice already. If Gilbert finds himself in the starting role come September (provided there is a season by then) this could provide for great chemistry on the line.
I am on the fence about Curtis Brown. Although, of the corners from that team, Carnell Lake says that he is the better cover corner. “Probably the best cover corner coming out [of Texas]. Aaron Williams was the first [Texas] corner taken. Aaron’s bigger, but we thought he was more of a safety.”
The biggest impact of the day was the 8th Circuit Court ruling to reinstate the stay – therefore the lockout is back on. This changes things up for the Steelers again. Heyward was able to get a playbook yesterday… Brown or Gilbert not so fortunate. Will this impact Brown and his potential in starting for the secondary come the regular season? We’ll save that crystal ball for another day. Gradin’ time!
On a side note: During the live chat last night, the best quote from one of the panelists: “Being a Patriots fan on draft day is like a trip to Vegas. You build up to it for weeks and weeks and then within 24 hours you are like WTF just happened?!” Brilliant.