Shazier, the son of the Miami Dolphins team chaplain, is a high character guy.
“My dad, I feel like he and my mom are my two best friends. I can talk to them about anything, especially with my dad. I can talk to him about anything, spiritually, or even football, because he coached a little bit as a high school coach. As a father, as a friend, he just always leads me the right way. Pretty much with every decision I make, I talk it over with my dad before I make the decision. I just feel like my dad is never going to lead me in the wrong direction. I feel like he is one of the greatest influences I’ve ever had in my life,” said Shazier. “A lot of kids don’t even have both of their parents and it’s a blessing to have both your parents, and then some kids don’t even talk to their parents like I do. I could talk to my parents every day. Sometimes I talk to them three or four times a day.”
Shazier played outside linebacker at Ohio State but will be converted to middle linebacker.
“We’re not going to anoint or hand anyone a job,” said coach Mike Tomlin. “They got to earned it. And to earn it you got to get an opportunity and there haven’t been too many opportunities because we always had a team with a lot of experience.”
In a move to bolster an aging defensive line, the Steelers selected Stephon Tuitt, a 6’5, 330 pound defensive end from Notre Dame with their 2nd round pick. A hernia and stress fracture in his foot affected his production in 2013.
Third round draft choice is “small in size but mighty otherwise.” Dri Archer, a 5’8, 175 pound, scat back from Kent State has plenty of position flexibility.
He can play running back, receiver and return punts and kickoffs. His 4.26 forty was one of the fastest times ever recorded at the NFL Combines.
“When I saw Dri, not that I’m playing back memories, but I had a little guy in Cleveland named Gerald McNeil, they called him ‘The Ice Cube,’ and he reminds me of him,” said Wide Receivers coach Richard Mann. “What we did with Gerald McNeil was make sure we had a plan for him and we stuck to it. Football is a big man’s game, there is a place for the small guy and he’ll be a tool and a weapon. He’s going to be fun to look at.”
The Steelers needed to add depth at receiver because Emmanuel Sanders and Jerricho Cotchery signed with other teams. In the fourth round the Steelers selected 6’4, 215 pound Martavis Bryant of Clemson.
There are several reasons why the Steelers didn’t make the playoffs. Perhaps the most glaring of their flaws was the lack of playmakers in the secondary. Pittsburgh added a cornerback with their fifth round pick. Shaquille Richardson, 6’0, 195 pounds, from Arizona University.
All-Pro and franchise quarterback ‘Big” Ben Roethisberger should prepare his body for another 50-sack season. The Steelers entered the draft needing help on the offensive line.
In the fifth round, they selected Wesley Johnson, a 6’5, 300 pound, center, guard and tackle who played at Vanderbilt. Viewed as a backup.
Colbert could not resist drafting another linebacker and with SEC Defensive Player of the Year Michael Sam still available the Steelers reached for UCLA’s, 6’4, 225 pound, Jordan Zumwalt.
The Steelers never were interested in Sam. The NFL’s first openly gay player, which gave them something in common with seemingly all the other NFL teams.
In the seventh round the Steelers selected, 6’7, 355 pound, Daniel “Shady Tree” McCullers, who was 420 pounds in high school. McCullers is a nose guard from the University of Tennessee.
Also in the seventh round the Steelers drafted 6’4, 255 pound, Rob Blanchflower a tight end from Massachusetts.
The draft is a sport of opinion, and opinions are subjective. Also, you get a different perspective when you’re part of the process. And even then, many so-called experts see things differently based on their own idea of what makes up the ideal football player.
But the consensus outside the Steelers organization is that their first round draft choice needed to be a defensive cornerback or a offensive lineman. Several teams were able to cut up the Steelers secondary like a knife through hot butter. William Gay, Cortez Allen and the aging Ike Taylor proved that they cannot consistently stand on an island and handle their business and Pittsburgh didn’t address a replacement in rounds one, two, three or four. Is the general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kevin Colbert or Cam Bonifay?
I gave the Steelers draft a failing grade. Colbert and his Mickey Mouse scouting department seem to be Gomer Pyle-ing their way through the draft.
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