15 biggest Pittsburgh Steelers roster busts of all-time

The Steelers drafted two offensive linemen and a wide receiver whose careers did not go quite the way we had hoped they would go

Grabbing the number nine spot on our list is John Rienstra, an offensive lineman from Temple University, my alma mater. This one is tough for me because not only did I have really high hopes for Rienstra, I think the Steelers had really high hopes as well.

Rienstra was selected number nine overall in the 1986 draft. I remember an article appearing in one of the local Philadelphia newspapers where Rienstra and my all-time favorite Steelers player, Mike Webster, were standing next to each other during what appeared to be a padded practice. I cut out that article and still have it to this day.

Rienstra played five seasons for us, playing in forty-two games and starting twenty-seven of those. I remember thinking that Rienstra was going to be a 'star' not only because of his physical attributes, a 6' 5", 273 pounder who was also athletic but because he would be mentored by 'Iron Mike'. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Coming in at number eight is Troy Edwards, a wide receiver from Lousiana Tech we drafted thirteenth overall in 1999. Edwards had a very productive college career as evidenced by the fact that he amassed over four-thousand receiving yards and just under one-thousand return yards while at LA Tech.

Unfortunately for us, that productivity did not translate in the NFL. Edwards played only three seasons for us, started only seven games, and never had more than seven hundred and fourteen yards receiving in a single season. For a former top-fifteen pick who had a lot of promise, things just simply did not work out for Edwards or for us.

With the number seven spot on our list is Jamain Stephens, our first-round pick in the 1996 draft. When we drafted Stephens, my first thought was that we had had a lot of success over the years drafting players from small schools.

Unfortunately, that success did not come to fruition with Stephens, who lasted only two seasons with us, playing in nineteen games and starting eleven of them. Stephens just really was never able to figure it out, so to speak and was out of football altogether following the 2001 season.

Let's continue our discussion with the numbers six, five, and four players on the list. We are in the home stretch.