Five times Steelers were made to look like fools in the NFL Draft
By Eric Hassel
The Steelers ‘missed’ on two first-round picks who were chosen three years apart
No. 3 Jarvis Jones
When the Steelers selected Jarvis Jones, OLB out of Georgia, with the 17th pick in the first round of the 2013 draft, it was ostensibly to replace James Harrison, our veteran OLB who had signed with the Cincinnati Bengals in the offseason. The drafting of Jones did no go as planned.
Jones lasted four years with us. He started 35 of 50 contests, tallying 2 INTs and 6 sacks. That’s correct; Jones had 6 sacks in his four-year career with the Steelers. In 2014, the year after we drafted Jones, we re-signed Harrison, who would go on to play another three years and part of a fourth year with the Steelers.
To further illustrate this point, a player who was drafted after Jones is now considered one of the best WRs in the game. How would you like to have DeAndre Hopkins right now? That’s right; the Steelers could have drafted Hopkins instead of Jones. Do you think we would have won a few more games this past season even without ‘Big Ben’ because we had Hopkins? I think so.
No. 2 Artie Burns
Shortly after we drafted Jones, the Steelers selected Artie Burns, CB out of Miami, in the first round of the 2016 draft. The drafting of Burns did not quite go as planned. Similar to Jones, Burns lasted four with us.
Burns actually got off to a pretty good start. He played in all 16 games in his first two seasons, starting 25 of them. Burns tallied 4 INTs in his first two seasons, then the bottom fell out, so to speak. In his last two seasons with the Steelers, Burns started 7 games, but 6 of those starts came in 2018. He started only one game in 2019.
I think the issue with Burns was that he lost his confidence and just could not regain it. If you play cornerback in the NFL, you must have a short memory. Invariably, you’re going to give up completions, TD’s, etc., but when that happens, you have to ‘wipe the slate clean’ and get back out there.
Burns just could not seem to do that, thus he was phased out of the defense to the point where the Steelers signed Steven Nelson, an unrestricted free agent, who was one of our starting CBs last season. So think about this: Last year, the starting CBs for the Steelers were both former free agents. What does that tell you about how poorly we have drafted CBs?
To add insult to injury, here is another CBs the Steelers could have drafted instead of Burns: Xavien Howard, who has already made a Pro Bowl. So if the Steelers really wanted to draft a CB, maybe Burns wasn’t the best choice.
Let’s now turn our attention to the players who tied for the number one spot of foolishness.