2005: The rebirth of the Steelers dynasty. This was the draft that put that rest of the pieces together for the Super Bowl run. Or was it? Was it necessary to have these guys to take it all the way to SBXL? You decide, because we aren’t. Check out the rest of the picks after the jump.
2005
1st Round, 30th pick: Heath Miller, TE, Virginia
2nd Round, 62nd pick: Bryant McFadden, DB, Florida State
3rd Round, Trai Essex, T, Northwestern
4th Round, 131st pick: Fred Gibson, WR, Georgia
5th Round, 166th pick: Rian Wallace, LB, Temple
6th Round, 204th pick: Chris Kemoeatu, G, Utah
7th Round, 228th pick: Shaun Nua, DE, Brigham Young
7th Round, 244th pick: Noah Herron, RB, Northwestern
Notable Busts: There were a lot but 1st pick Alex Smith, 7th pick Troy Williamson
Notable Late Round Gems: Round 3, pick 65, Frank Gore; Round 4, pick 110, Brandon Jacobs; Round 7, pick 230, Matt Cassel
Best Names: Hamza Abdullah, Nehemiah Broughton, Craphonso Thorpe, Anttaj Hawthorne
If you didn’t think Heath was a big addition to the Steelers then you’re out of your mind. Before Heath, we had Jerame Tuman and he sucked. His stats from the 2004 season were 9 catches for 89 yards and 3 touchdowns, or basically a good game for a top wide receiver. So drafting Heath “Big Money” Miller was a huge move for keeping defenses on their toes if they decided to concentrate on Plax or Hines. He’s been such a deadly force in the red zone when teams stack the line and think we’re going to plow it up the middle. He was out two games last year and he already had more receptions than the year before. He’s getting better every year and may never become that ‘great’ type of tight end like a Tony Gonzalez or Antonio Gates but we don’t need him to be.
Some of the other picks turned out while most didn’t. McFadden was a nice help to our secondary. He got a bunch of starts in 2006 when Deshea went down and did a pretty decent job with 3 picks and 3 fumble recoveries. Last year he replaced Deshea since he was getting old and Bryant stepped up his game. Since he’s young and still has potential, the Arizona Cardinals decided to snatch him up too this offseason. Trai Essex got to start a few games his rookie season but really hasn’t done much since. Other than Kemoeatu the rest are nobodies. Kemo really didn’t get chance until these past two seasons. Last year he got the nod at left guard but didn’t really do all that great of a job. Our whole line is basically between sucks and not good. But hey, we got him from the 6th round, so I guess that gives a little value, yeah? Whatever. This draft was good but not great. But I’ll take it.
Grade: C+
Tell us what you think about the draft before SBXL in the comments.
