With the departure of Mike Wallace for the Scrooge-McDuck-like riches offered by the Miami Dolphins, the Steelers found themselves hurting for wide receiver depth. Antonio Brown has solidified himself as the #1 playmaker in Pittsburgh, and Emmanuel Sanders is a good complementary receiver. If you remember anything about Emmanuel Sanders, it's probably him converting a long third down. He's also missed time here and there with various nagging injuries. Behind him are the veteran duo of Plaxico Burress and Jerricho Cotchery. Both of those guys are fine secondary components to an offense, but their age can't be ignored. What the Steelers needed to find in the 2013 draft was a young wide receiver to share time with those veterans and get ready to step in should Sanders get hurt or leave in free agency next year.
So in the third round, the Steelers selected Markus Wheaton. Wheaton was a track runner for a time in college, so he has the foot speed to hang in the NFL. He's quick and he's shifty, and despite a few issues with his overall technique (that's what coaches are for), whoever writes about prospects for NFL.com predicted he would go in the first or second round. I'm not sure if that says more about NFL.com's foresight or Wheaton's value in the 3rd, but either way the Steelers found a youthful receiver to play with Brown and Sanders.
The one glaring downside to Wheaton as a receiver is his height. At only 5'11", he's pretty average for an adult human male but pretty short for a receiver. He has the speed, but his height is probably the main reason he fell to the third round. Short receivers can succeed in the NFL, but they're often limited to slot duty and rarely become stars.
Hold on, this narrative is starting to sound familiar. Undersized, speedy receiver? Falls to the Steelers likely because of height concerns?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Obviously you can't expect any mid-round pick to turn into the focal point of your aerial offense, but the work this staff has done with Brown bodes very well for Markus Wheaton. As long as the kid's got a good head on his shoulders (and many wide receivers don't), he'll be given the tools to succeed in Pittsburgh. He'll probably see a lot of slot duty early in his career as more experienced receivers run primary routes, but that's a good way for a receiver to learn to read defenses, and if he develops any early chemistry with Ben Roethlisberger the way Antonio Brown did, he could grow quickly.
Again, those are unfair expectations to heap on the kid, and if Brown and Sanders stay healthy, he won't be called upon too often in his rookie year. He'll have training camp to get ahead of Cotchery and Burress on the depth chart, but that's not a bad position for the rookie receiver.
