Chuck Noll used to say the Steelers would take the best player available to his team when it came time for the team to draft. And back in the days before free agency, that made a lot of sense.
First, when Noll first got to Pittsburgh, the Steelers needed an influx of talent everywhere. Then, once the team got good, he could afford to stash players on his roster. After all, they couldn't go anywhere else unless the Steelers cut them.
Now, however, with free agency and the salary cap, stashing players for a couple of years isn't really something that's possible.
The Steelers still say they take the "best player available," but it's funny how the best player available often happens to come at a position of need.
The Steelers will have their rankings on players. And they'll have them in order of how they feel they should be selected. But if the rankings are close, they'll take the player at a position of need.
The question, of course, is how close is close?
"It’s always a relative range," Kevin Colbert admitted earlier this week. "When you pass up a highly rated player to take a player rated lower, significantly lower, you’ll end up regretting it. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve been a part of it in the past. It happens, we’re all guilty of focusing on one year."
As far as needs, they filled those in free agency, bringing in Morgan Burnett at safety and Jon Bostic at inside linebacker. If they had to line up and play a game at 1 p.m. on Sunday, they could do so without any of the members of this year's rookie class.
The Steelers head into the 2018 draft, which begins tonight, with some wants. They want to improve their depth at inside linebacker, safety and outside linebacker. They would like to improve the competition for depth on their roster on the defensive line and perhaps on the interior of their offensive line. And they seem to take a receiver every year to add depth at that position.
So, in some ways, the Steelers can select the "best player available" in the first round of this draft. But you'd better believe that player will be at one of those positions it would like to improve.
• I just don't see how any of the top four linebackers in this year's draft fall to the Steelers. That will be especially true if the top two, Roquan Smith and Tremaine Edmunds, go in or near the top 10.
There are too many teams with front-seven needs picking before the Steelers for Rashaan Evans or Leighton Vander Esch to fall to the 28th pick.
Then again, I thought the same thing last year with T.J. Watt. The only difference is, last year, the outside linebacker/edge rusher crop was much deeper than this class, which allowed Watt, who had been just a one-year starter at Wisconsin, to fall.
There aren't as many true edge rushers in this draft, which could cause some teams to look long and hard at those top four linebackers as guys who might be capable of helping inside or out.
• That will leave safety as the next hole that needs to be filled. The Steelers have three-and-a-half NFL-caliber safeties on their roster in Burnett, Sean Davis, J.J. Wilcox and Nat Berhe.
I say a half, because Berhe is almost strictly a special teams guy.
What they don't have in that group, however, is someone who is a true center fielder-type safety. Burnett has played free safety in the past, but at this point in his career, he might be better suited to play the strong side or in the box.
So, a free safety such as Justin Reid or Jessie Bates would make a lot of sense as the Steelers' pick in the first round.
• Cornerback remains a wild card, even though the Steelers really like the group they currently have. If a talented corner, such as Jaire Alexander, falls to them, they could have an interest. But that would mean Cameron Sutton is definitely moving to free safety.
Even so, that first-round draft pick could spend the season on the bench. The Steelers like Joe Haden and Artie Burns on the outside and Mike Hilton in the slot. And they really like the upside potential of Sutton and Brian Allen.
Yes, Haden's contract is up after the 2019 season, but the team feels Sutton and/or Allen will be ready to step in by that point on the outside.
Safety is a much more pressing need.
• It would figure after having a serious need at cornerback for about a decade, only to have all of the top corners selected before their pick, the Steelers would have one of the top couple of cornerbacks fall to them this year when they don't need one.
• You have to give new Pitt men's basketball coach Jeff Capel credit, he knows how to make a splash.
Given the state of his roster and its defections, the easy thing to do would be to take any and all bodies at this point who have a pulse, just to fill out the roster. And in many cases, that would include JUCO players, transfers and lower-ranked players. But that's what got the previous coaching staff in trouble at Pitt.
Capel presumably hit a home run with his first signing, top-100 combo guard Trey McGowens. And he still has four more open scholarship spots.
But he has started out by setting the bar high, which isn't a bad thing.
• Before anyone asks (again), no, the Steelers are not taking a running back in the first round. And no, they're not trading Le'Veon Bell.
They are locked in to paying Bell $14.5 million in 2018. And if he's making that kind of money, he's getting the ball 450 times, not standing on the sideline while a rookie gets some seasoning.
If Bell and the Steelers part ways after this season, they can do the same thing they did in 2013 when they selected Bell in the second round. Plug the new kid in and play him. Running back is a position where guys can come in and play right away.
• My odds on the Steelers' first pick are as follows: Reid/Bates (2-1), Vander Esch/Evans (4-1), OLB Harold Landry of Boston College (6-1), offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn of Georgia (8-1) and QB Lamar Jackson (15-1).
Wynn can play guard or tackle and would be a nice replacement for Chris Hubbard, and he could step into the starting lineup in 2019. And Vander Esch and Evans are behind the safeties because I don't feel they will be available.