Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2018 i Steelers Digest

Ryan Shazier was very much an integral component of the 2018 NFL draft for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both his presence, and his absence. His presence at the site of the draft in Arlington, Texas, touched their hearts and served as an inspiration to all who watched him walk the 20 yards out to the podium with his fiancée, Michelle, to announce the Steelers’ first-round draft choice. Seeing how far Shazier had come, through hard work and sheer determination, to walk approximately 20 yards unaided following a severe spinal injury on Dec. 4 in Cincinnati brought some tears to the eyes of team personnel gathered in the Bill Nunn Draft Room as the Steelers conducted their business during the first round, and his walk brought a standing ovation from the crowd…

Chukwuma Okorafor broke a dry spell for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The 6-6, 320-pound tackle out of Western Michigan was drafted in the third round by the Steelers, who had gone five years without using a premium pick (1-3 rounds) on an offensive lineman. The last time they tried that, 1959 through 1963, a plague of locusts and a 19-62-1 record descended upon the city. It was quite grim. Maybe that’s why Mike Munchak was so merry when he walked into the media room to talk about the selection of “Chuks.” As in Dukes. “I didn’t think I’d be standing here today,” Munchak said. “I’m excited.” In Okorafor, the Steelers drafted a player who’s said to be a natural left tackle, but who Munchak hopes can also play right tackle. The…

In a state where everything is larger than life, Stamford, Texas, is the complete opposite. The population is around 3,000. The city is small, only 12.9 square miles, 6.9 of those square miles covered by water. And there are just two stoplights. Yes, two. One of the biggest attractions fits the area perfectly, the Cowboy Country Museum. It’s also home to the Texas Cowboy Reunion, now in its 88th year as the world’s largest amateur rodeo, and attracting numbers way beyond the population of the city. When you look at the list of notable individuals who came from Stamford, it’s not long, and they aren’t the names you hear every day. On that list, though, is someone familiar to the Steelers. James Washington. Washington, the wide receiver from Oklahoma State…

The first-round picks get the bulk of the attention, they are the most heavily scrutinized, and they come to identify the entire draft class. If the No. 1 pick becomes an All-Pro player, history comes to judge the draft class as a success. Conversely, if the No. 1 pick is a bust, the entire class is tainted. But the professionals who make their living in the evaluation/picking of college prospects will tell you it’s the second day of the draft that actually is the meat and potatoes of this annual exercise. The second day of an NFL draft contains the second and third rounds, and those players come into the league on four-year contracts that are extremely salary-cap-friendly, and they often are separated from their first-round brethren by tenths of…

A number on the back of a player’s jersey can be just that. a number. Nothing special, nothing symbolic. simply the number they were assigned when either being drafted or signed by a new team. For others, though, that number is much more. It’s an identity, it’s something they relate to, or it’s a way to honor a player they idolized. For sean Davis, the latter is true. Davis wore number 28 his first two seasons with the steelers, since number 21 was taken first by robert Golden, and then acquired by Joe Haden last season. But as the numbers turned this offseason, number 21 became available, and Davis made the quick switch. “I had to grab it,” said Davis. “That was my number since my freshman year of high…

Maybe the Steelers don’t have to work on Christmas Day this year, as they have in each of the two previous seasons. But they certainly will have their work cut out for them leading up to that national holiday if they’re again going to be in the mix to play the role of host in the postseason and contend for one of the AFC’s two first-round byes heading into the playoffs. The NFL has released its 2018 regular season schedule, and while the Steelers’ version begins just as it did for them in 2017 — with a 1 p.m. game against the Browns in Cleveland — the challenge it potentially poses over its second half could be unlike anything the team has faced in 10 years. Back in 2008, the…

“He was a really fun evaluation for me personally. Anything that you can imagine him doing, you saw him do on Virginia Tech’s defensive tape.” Getting a top player at a particular position isn’t easy when you’re drafting as late as the Steelers have drafted throughout the Kevin Colbert-Mike Tomlin era. Since 2007, the Steelers average picking 23.3, yet have maintained an elite won-loss record by drafting the best player at positions which don’t rank among the most valued, at least monetarily: inside linebacker, 5-tech defensive end, center, guard and, this year, sub-package safety. Of course, no one should fall for the misnomer of “sub package,” because it’s being used over the “base” on more than 7 of 10 snaps. In fact, colleges are using so many sub packages that…

From the notebook of a sportswriter who’s believing the Steelers have a better chance of winning a seventh title this season with each passing day: • One of the statistics-driven websites released its post-draft power rankings that had the Steelers and Patriots ranked 2 and 1, respectively. • FootballPerspective.com put the just-announced Las Vegas point spreads for every game into a computer to spit out those rankings. Not sure how well it’s proven in the past. Don’t think I had heard of the site until now. But I’m using it as an excuse for an optimism bubbling with some other developments. • The first such development was the drafting of quarterback Mason Rudolph. More specifically, the effect the drafting of Rudolph seems to be having on Ben Roethlisberger. • During…