7 Takeaways from Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert’s press conference
Head Coach Mike Tomlin and General Manager Kevin Colbert gave a joint “pre-draft” press conference today, and if you thought it was less than thrilling, you aren’t the only one. There is something strange about holding a press conference about the draft when you are prohibited from mentioning any potential prospects.
But, this is the NFL, and logic and rationality are not always in attendance.
Despite that being said, there was actual information that was delivered during the 30-plus minutes that Tomlin and Colbert spoke. Some of it was what we’ve heard repeatedly, but there were some interesting insights on Senquez Golson, how the Steelers set up their draft boards, and if they are willing to consider a trade down, or up.
Unpredictable
During his opening statement, Colbert was clear about the volatility of this year’s draft.
A lot of times going into this part of the draft process we have a pretty good idea about where this thing could go… but this year it’s really an unpredictable draft.
Colbert pointed to the quarterback position as one of the primary reasons.
There is so many, we think, differing opinions on who the quarterbacks are and who is going to take who and where.
Even Coach Tomlin was pretty straightforward, saying:
There is an added excitement because of the many layers of how this thing could unfold.
The first hint of some actual information followed that statement when Colbert said “It really doesn’t matter to us, I just think it leads into the unpredictability.”
Six words stayed with me:
It really doesn’t matter to us.
Why might that be? If the Steelers as every other member of the Steelers Nation seems to think, are in the market for a quarterback, well, they sure don’t sound like they are. That idea was discounted even more later on in the presser when Colbert said:
We have a great quarterback. We think that he is gonna be here for a while.
Again, he didn’t close the door on drafting a quarterback, but it was pretty clear that the picture being painted was that unless it’s a can’t miss, super value kind of prospect, then the Steelers aren’t really in the market.
So please, pay attention all you experts who keep mocking Kizer to the Steelers at 30.
The Media Can Be Annoying
While I don’t think, it was terribly surprising that non-draft related question where the first questions posed by the media in attendance. The first and second questions (I could be wrong, but it sounded like David Todd) both had to do with Martavis Bryant. It was clear that somebody had made the decision to try and keep the questions focused and to the point.
Immediately after the Martavis questions, you could hear from off camera someone saying:
Does anyone have any draft related questions for Kevin or Coach?
You might think that this would deter things, but the next question:
Does that change anything with your receivers going into the draft?
The truth is, despite the reprimand, I can see how questions related to Martavis could be considered “draft related”. I’ve stated repeatedly that it is unfair to the Steelers, as well to the rest of the league. I even did a whole podcast about it! I don’t think those questions were out of line, but maybe they could have been asked a bit later on in the process, instead of right off the bat. It set a tone that many picked up on, and carried through a good part of the press conference.
Colbert reiterated what he’s said multiple times before:
Until he’s here, he’s not here, and we just have to prepare as such. Whether he would be here or not, we’re going to look at all the receivers and act accordingly.
Trades
Early on Colbert hinted that he thought this draft was ripe for trades. He started off hinting that it might not be the Steelers who would be trading, but because of the varying opinions on the quarterbacks, there is a chance that teams could be looking to move up, or down.
In fact, when Colbert was asked about how the Steelers mock things up, his answer hinted that the Steelers could be open to a trade back scenario, or that minimally, they are prepared for it.
We’ll get through the first, all the way through a trade-down possibility. In the event that we trade down we’re gonna know, if we go four spots, do we have four people. We have to be prepared for that before we get in to the room.
The Board
One of the things that I found really interesting is how the Steelers set their draft board. Colbert talked about how they set their board for day one, and then reset it at the end of day one based on who is still available. That process continues round by round.
When asked if they set their list 1-30, and then just stick to it, Colbert had this to say:
You’re gonna have your board set the way the players are graded, but that’s not how you’ll pick em.
To illustrate this point, he compared having a cornerback and a quarterback on the board, and maybe the corner is rated a little lower than the corner – what would the Steelers do?
You get to a quarterback and a corner, in our scenario you’ll probably take a corner over a quarterback as long as their close.
But don’t despair you quarterback hungry hoards – he followed that up by saying:
If the quarterback is significantly better than the corner, then we may be kicking ourselves if we didn’t take the quarterback that is available to us.
Ladarius Green
When asked about Ladarius, Coach Tomlin was very clear.
We don’t have any medical updates relative to any of the guys on our team.
This continues to be a concern to me. As much as I am a “glass half full” guy, the fact that no-one has even made a point of saying that Ladarius is, or is not, still in the concussion protocol is a bit disconcerting. We’ve seen articles hinting that Ladarius “hopes” to make a full comeback (if that’s even the right word) and be productive this season.
What we haven’t seen are any facts, or concrete evidence that this is likely, or even possible.
I don’t know all the ins and outs of what kind of medical evaluations can take place in the off season, and how much the Steelers are entitled to know or be informed on how an injured player is progressing. Maybe they really don’t have any idea, and maybe they do, and they simply don’t want to let anyone else know what they know.
It’s fair to say that if the Steelers have someone like David Njoku fall to them at 30 and they take him, it might be a signal that Ladarius is continuing to have problems. If they pass on him, it might mean that there is reason for optimism.
Senquez Golson
Have the Steelers soured on Golson? I wouldn’t go that far, but I think at this point is very obvious they are concerned.
Last year I sat here and said we view him as an extra draft pick. Unfortunately, we can’t do that right now. Through no fault of his own, he’s been injured two years in a row. In all honesty, I worry about a defensive back coming off of a foot injury.
It’s not just the injuries that concern Colbert though, it’s also the time away from the game.
I don’t think you can minimize not playing for two season. He has to relearn a lot of football, and his body has to relearn a lot of football movement.
Colbert made it clear he’s still hoping that it works out, but also that it’s no longer as easily to predict or expect.
Linebackers
Colbert continued to talk about how difficult it is to find linebackers that fit the Steelers defense. He talked about how the Steelers spent 73% of their defensive snaps in sub-packages.
That’s quite a lot of time where players are being asked to play a position other than what Colbert called their “base”.
They still have to have a home position. Are they defensive lineman or linebackers?
Colbert was very upfront in saying that their record on finding guys who fit is “hit or miss”. He said “I don’t know what the success rate will be, I just know it’s the most difficult.”
The outside linebackers we have to do double work. As a personnel group we’ll look at them, but we’ll have the defensive line coach look at them as well as the outside linebacker coach. And the strength coach to try to predict growth and look at their body types.
It’s not an exact science, that’s for sure.
Conclusion
A couple of quotes that stick with me after the press conference was one that came up when both Coach Tomlin and Colbert where asked about the ever-increasing role of technology and analytics. Colbert said:
There are some things they can research now that you can factor in. But it’s just a piece of the puzzle. At the core, you’re still looking for football players. Once we figure out if we can measure a mind and a heart, then we’ll have something.
Tomlin followed that up by saying:
The analytics guys who can develop a “will” index, well they are on the cutting edge.
The thing is, we all love getting hyped about the draft. We start analyzing it so excessively that at some point all we really want is for the draft to come and be done so we can get back to thinking about football. But at the end of the day, it takes men who know the game much more intimately than 99% of the fans, the writers or anyone else doing the best they can to make an educated guess on the potential of a given prospect.
There are hints we can take from this press conference. Clearly there are concerns about both the availability of Martavis Bryant, and the durability of Senquez Golson. It’s not hard to take those two pieces of information and realize that those things might have an impact on the draft.
It would appear that the Steelers are not “expecting” to take a quarterback in this draft unless the value is one that would later on put them in the position of “kicking themselves”.
The reason they seem to take linebackers so often in the draft is not because they aren’t good at finding them, but instead, is because they are in fact, hard to find.
It’s interesting to hear someone set expectations that movement will be heavy in this draft, because it has always felt that way, with a quarterback class that has elicited so many differing opinions, the potential for teams desperate for a QB feeling the need to move to find “their guy” could cause some real drama come Thursday night.
The good news is, it’s almost here.
