Steelers Now
Mike Renner of CBS Sports did not hold back on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ recent struggles on first-round picks.
“I did an exercise this week, it’s going up on CBSSports.com later this week, where I ranked all 191 first-round picks from this decade in terms of the best decision to the worst,” Renner said Wednesday on his Pushing the Pile podcast. “The team with the worst draft track record this decade in the first round? It was, bar none, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“They have not gotten a darn thing out of those guys they’ve taken highly. When you look at this roster, it’s 37-year-old Cam Heyward, 32-year-old T.J. Watt; it’s 30-plus-year-old Jalen Ramsey. They are not a young roster right now… Kevin Colbert, this is basically still his team, and he hasn’t been the GM in four years.”
Since 2013, the Steelers have extended just one first-round pick — T.J. Watt. That’s it. Linebacker Ryan Shazier would’ve been extended if it wasn’t for his career-ending spinal injury in 2017, however.
The rest of the first-round picks, for the most part, were busts. Things look promising for 2024 first-round pick Troy Fautanu so far, while Broderick Jones’ future is murky due to a devastating neck injury last season.
More than four years after the Steelers selected quarterback Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, former general manager Kevin Colbert remains confident the organization made the right decision based on the information available at the time.
While Pickett’s tenure in Pittsburgh ultimately fell short of expectations, Colbert argued that the process behind the selection was sound and that the quarterback showed signs early in his career that suggested he was developing into the player the Steelers envisioned.
“Yeah, and you know, Kenny was a start and win. We projected Kenny to be a start and win NFL quarterback and quite honestly, he lived up to that in his first two seasons with us. You know, for us, he was 14 and 10 and trending in the right direction.” Colbert said on 93.7 The Fan’s Pomp and Joe Show, defending the organization’s decision to use the No. 20 overall pick on the former Pitt star.
The Steelers entered the 2022 offseason facing a franchise altering transition following Ben Roethlisberger‘s retirement. With uncertainty at quarterback and a need for long-term stability at the position, Pittsburgh reached for Pickett, who was coming off a record-setting final season at the University of Pittsburgh.
At the time, many draft analysts viewed Pickett as the top quarterback prospect in what was a pretty weak class. His familiarity with the city, leadership qualities, and extensive college experience made him an attractive option for a Steelers team searching for its next franchise quarterback.
The miss on Pickett was definitely the worst of the Steelers’ botched first-round picks over the last 10-plus years. It’s 2026, and the franchise is still looking for a franchise quarterback.
Ben Maggitt contributed.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: [Analyst Absolutely Rips...
