I've been doing this for a long time. In fact, this past weekend marked my 29th NFL Draft.
But I see the same things happen every year. Fans look at the draft from Team A, compare it to their team's draft and trash their own team's efforts.
Here's the thing -- all drafts are not equal. They don't happen in a vacuum.
But if, for example, you're picking No. 1 like the Bengals did this year, you'd better have a good draft. Everyone should like what you did. You had the first pick in every round.
Same thing goes for any team picking in the top 10. You're guaranteed, if you're doing things right, to get a premium player in the first round. Then, when things reset for the second and third days, you're going to get a solid selection then, as well.
And if you have a whole bunch of picks in the second, third and fourth rounds, you're going to get a boatload of players that people have heard of from their favorite college football teams.
That's how this thing works.
Yes, I just described the drafts of the Bengals, Browns and Ravens. But the thing is, the Bengals earned that top pick in the draft by posting the worst record in the league last season. The Browns earned that top-10 pick by being, well, the Browns. And the Ravens had all of those mid-round picks because they have allowed so many players to leave in free agency, getting compensatory picks in return.
Which brings me to the Steelers' draft. The Steelers didn't have a first-round pick. That was sent to the Dolphins as part of the deal for Minkah Fitzpatrick. Their regular third-round pick in this draft was shipped to the Broncos as part of the deal to acquire Devin Bush. Instead, they had to settle for a compensatory pick they got in return for losing Le'Veon Bell.
That meant they had one pick in the first 101 selections. That's not a lot.
But for the Steelers, you had to look at the haul they have gotten over the past two seasons in the draft to truly evaluate their draft this year.
Fitzpatrick would have been -- by far -- the best safety in this draft. He would have challenged Ohio State cornerback Jeff Okudah as the top defensive back taken in this draft. There wasn't a safety selected in the first round of this draft.
Bush would have been the top true inside linebacker in this draft. Isaiah Simmons is a better prospect, but is he an inside or outside linebacker? Is he a safety?
Bush is better than Kenneth Murray, the inside linebacker taken by the Chargers with the 23rd pick, and Patrick Queen, the Ravens' pick at No. 28.
So the Steelers got two players who will enter the 2020 regular season at 23 and 22 -- younger than many of the players who were in this draft -- who are game-changing defensive players.
And those kind of players are expensive when it comes to draft capital, especially if you aren't already picking in the top of the draft. Remember, Fitzpatrick was the 11th player selected in the 2018 draft and the Steelers had to move up to the 10th pick to get Bush.
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