The Steelers held onto Tim Worley over Emmitt Smith in the 1990 draft
Tim Worley joined the Steelers after they started to emerge out of the shadows of the dark 80s era. The team was starting to come together again, but there was still some work to do. Finding a reliable back was high on the things that the franchise needed at the time.
Drafting Worley in the first round was one of the biggest draft mistakes that the team has made. He struggled to put numbers up at the next level and that caused him to have a short career with Pittsburgh. Chuck Noll really struggled to find talent in the draft in his end years with the club.
He would only last six total seasons in the NFL with the majority in the black and gold. He lost favor on the team quickly, but not quick enough to look in another direction. The following draft could have let the Steelers get a future Hall of Famer at the position.
They could have traded up in the 1990 NFL Draft to select Emmitt Smith, but that did not happen. The team decided to stick to the guy they had and wait to see what their former first-round pick could do. This is a bit of a stretch in this scenario, but the world will never know now.