Two days into the 2018 NFL Draft, the Steelers have taken a safety, receiver, quarterback and offensive tackle. For a team that had inside linebacker and safety as its biggest needs, that has left a lot of people scratching their heads.
But, those people are thinking inside the box. We can argue whether the Steelers made the right selection when they picked Virginia Tech's Terrell Edmunds in the first round of the draft Thursday night, but the position made sense.
The Steelers wanted to trade up with Carolina to get ahead of Tennessee and select inside linebacker Rashaan Evans. But the Titans, who also were in need of an inside linebacker, knew that as well. So did the Steelers' hated rivals, the Baltimore Ravens.
So the Titans, fearing a trade up by the Steelers, pulled a preemptive strike and moved up to Baltimore's spot at 22 and selected Evans, the last of the four complete inside linebackers available in this draft. The Ravens most certainly weren't going to do anything to help the Steelers, and, in fact, wound up affecting their draft plans.
Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert had both already said they didn't feel any of the linebackers after the big four of Evans, Roquan Smith, Tremaine Edmunds — the younger brother of Terrell Edmunds — and Leighton Vander Esch, were worthy of a first-round pick. The linebackers after those four all have holes in their game. They might be good in pass coverage but sub-par against the run. Or they might have pass-rushing skills but be sub-par against the pass. You get the idea.
So the Steelers did the next best thing. They drafted another safety.
Again, was Edmunds the right guy in that spot? Many scouting services didn't think so. He was rated as a second-to-third-round guy.
But in this draft, after the top 15 picks, you could throw a blanket over the next 50 or so selections. They could go in any order and it largely wouldn't matter.
And Edmunds, as we found out, played all of the 2017 season with a shoulder injury so severe he finally had to give in after 10 games and have a surgical repair. His 2016 tape was much better, which is to be expected.
Still, there might have been better options. Except the next safety picked, Jessie Bates, wasn't selected until Cincinnati took him 26 picks later. And he wound up being the only safety selected in the second round.
Justin Reid and Ronnie Harrison, two players many of the experts — and me — had mocked to the Steelers in the first round of the draft, weren't selected until the third round.
It just shows what an inexact science the draft and draft prognostication truly is. What the media and draft analysts aren't privy to are the medical or off-field issues with many players.
So the Steelers took a player at the position many expected them to fall back on if they failed to get a linebacker in the first round. It just wasn't the safety many thought.
But it signals a change in defensive philosophy. With Ryan Shazier now out of the lineup for the foreseeable future — if he ever plays again — the Steelers faced the task this offseason of replacing their most dynamic defensive playmaker. Shazier was capable of making plays at all three levels of the defense, much the same way Troy Polamalu used to be able to affect a game.
They were not, however, going to get a player like Shazier picking 28th in the first round of the draft or in free agency. And given that the only inside linebacker with Shazier-like skills — Smith — was selected with the eighth-overall pick by the Chicago Bears, the Steelers had no chance of going up to get him.
Evans or Vander Esch would have been Plan A. Now, they'll go with Plan B.
Plan B is one they have already begun formulating when they acquired Jon Bostic and Morgan Burnett in free agency. And Edmunds, a big, speedy safety, also figures into the equation.
Bostic replaces Shazier in the 3-4 defense, which the Steelers play 25-30 percent of the time. And Burnett or Edmunds slide up to inside linebacker in the nickel and dime defenses, which the team plays 70-75 percent of the time.
Which one is really the base defense?
The base defense is the one you play the most, which would mean the sub-package is, in reality, the team's base defense. And more and more teams are playing three-safety defenses, with a safety replacing a linebacker on the field; so much so, in fact, those players are now being listed as linebackers.
Hybrid defensive players are all the rage. And Edmunds fits the bill in that regard. After all, he's just one pound lighter than the 218 pounds at which Jacksonville linebacker Telvin Smith is listed. He's 12 pounds lighter than the 229 pounds at which Shazier was listed.
And regardless of whether you, me or Mel Kiper thought Edmunds was selected too early, if he becomes a starter and goes on to have a lengthy career, was he over-drafted? Especially when you consider the Steelers then landed quarterback Mason Rudolph, a player many had as a first-round talent, with one of their two third-round picks.
After all, didn't we hear for years the Steelers should move Shazier to safety? Now, it appears they are working that the opposite way, moving a safety, either Burnett or Edmunds, to linebacker.
