By BOB LABRIOLA

Steelers.com

 

In the National Football League, a team doesn't win a championship if it does not draft well, but the point of the whole system was to penalize the most successful teams. The NFL Draft was created in 1935 by Commissioner Bert Bell as a way for the weaker teams to have a chance to improve themselves, and that's why the picking always has been in inverse order of the standings.

 

Picking late in a draft certainly decreases the likelihood of success, and therefore it stands to reason that picking last is the toughest position of all. That's why the reigning league champion gets to pick last, but if NFL scouts are telling the truth when they say there are good players to be had in every round, then it's not impossible for a defending champion to put together a good draft.

 

The Steelers won Super Bowl XL, and so they'll be picking 32nd and last in the 2006 NFL Draft, to be held this weekend. Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert has said the team wasn't affected by winning the Super Bowl in its preparation for this draft, and the Steelers have done well in this annual selection process during each of the years Colbert and Coach Bill Cowher have presided over it.

 

It will take a few years before a credible evaluation can be made of the Steelers' 2006 draft class, but it is possible to review the draft day performance of previous 10 Super Bowl champions.

 

1995: Dallas ended this season by defeating the Steelers in Super Bowl XXX, and it marked the Cowboys' third championship of the decade. While building a team that included Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Daryl Johnston, Russell Maryland, Leon Lett, Erik Williams, Larry Allen, Mark Stepnoski and the host of others who contributed to those titles, the Cowboys manipulated the draft masterfully. Often trading down to accumulate more picks, the Cowboys still managed to avoid sacrificing quality for the sake of quantity.

 

Three months after Super Bowl XXX, Jerry Jones continued the trend of trading down to accumulate more picks – and even if that once was a sound strategy, the players selected this time weren't very good. Dallas made nine picks in 1996, and seven of them were Clay Shiver, Stepfret Williams, Mike Ulufale, Kenneth McDaniel, Alan Campos, Wendell Davis and Ryan Wood. Dallas has made the playoffs four times since winning Super Bowl XXX.

 

1996: With Ron Wolf in charge, the Green Bay Packers traded for Brett Favre and built a dynamic offense around him, and they signed Reggie White and used him to anchor a  big-play defense that forced 39 turnovers during the run to the championship. Thirteen of the Packers' 22 starters in Super Bowl XXXI were draft picks, and that ratio shows that Wolf utilized every means available to acquire personnel.

 

Three months after winning the Super Bowl, the Packers went into the draft and made their one pick in each round. No trades. The best of what they got that year was safety Darren Sharper, a second-round pick. The only other player to make a real contribution to the organization was Ross Verba, the offensive tackle who was the No. 1 pick. Green Bay would return to the Super Bowl the following January, but the Packers lost to the Denver Broncos.

 

1997-1998: The Broncos became the sixth different NFL franchise to win back-to-back Super Bowls, and even though most of the warm-and-fuzzies were reserved for quarterback John Elway, the best player on those championship teams was a running back named Terrell Davis. A sixth-round pick from Georgia in 1995, Davis was the league's best player in each of these championship seasons, and even if Denver wasn't a team built exclusively through the draft, the draft definitely was what provided the Broncos with their difference-makers.

 

After the first Super Bowl win, the Broncos made an attempt to add a big-play receiver for Elway with a No. 1 pick, but the league where Marcus Nash ended up making an impact was the Arena League. Eric Brown, the No. 2 pick that year, started 52 games over four seasons before leaving as a free agent; No 3 pick Brian Griese originally was believed to be Elway's heir apparent. After their second Super Bowl, the Broncos added a Pro Bowl-caliber middle linebacker in Al Wilson in the first round, and they re-created their sixth-round magic by drafting another back who became a 1,000-yard rusher – Olandis Gary. But two good players from each of two draft classes wasn't enough, and Denver missed the playoffs three times in the seven seasons after that second Super Bowl.

 

1999: There seemed to be an abundance of luck associated with the St. Louis Rams' run to this Super Bowl championship, what with Kurt Warner going from a guy who stocked shelves in a supermarket to the NFL MVP, but the team also was able to capitalize on years spent picking in the top half of the draft. Lawrence Phillips was a disaster as the sixth overall pick in 1996, but Torry Holt and Grant Wistrom and Orlando Pace and Kevin Carter were definitely not. The Rams combined a potent offense with a magical job by Coach Dick Vermeil, and they won a championship.

 

But the team's performance in the ensuing draft was more like the 1996 version. Trung Candidate, Jacoby Shepherd and John St. Clair were the first three picks – and that was as good as it got.

 

2000: The Baltimore Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV with a dominating defense and a punishing running attack. Both of those aspects of the team were created through the draft. Rob Burnett, Jamal Lewis, Jonathan Ogden, Ray Lewis, Peter Boulware, Chris McAlister, Duane Starks, Jamie Sharper and Jermaine Lewis all came to the team via the draft, and they formed a nucleus that combined with guys like Michael McCrary and Sam Adams and Rod Woodson to give the Ravens a team that was dominating through the playoffs.

 

In the following draft, the Ravens did a decent job with their seven draft picks, by adding the likes of Todd Heap, Gary Baxter and Ed Hartwell over the first four rounds. But salary cap issues forced the team to purge its roster after the 2001 season, and the Ravens have made the playoffs just once in the four seasons since then.

 

2001, 2003-2004: When a team picks a player like Tom Brady on the sixth round of a draft, it represents the ultimate combination of diligence and luck. A number of the players who helped the Patriots to their first championship were on the team that lost to the Packers in Super Bowl XXXI. By the time the 2001 season rolled around, the Patriots had Bill Belichick as their coach instead of Bill Parcells, but their commitment to the draft had not wavered.

 

Once the Patriots won their first trophy, that didn't change. In the draft following the 2001 season, the Patriots went into it with 11 picks but made only six of them. They traded up in the first round for TE Daniel Graham, and they moved in the fourth round to get QB Rohan Davey. Future Super Bowl MVP Deion Branch was the No. 2 pick, DE Jarvis Green was a nice pick in the fourth round, and WR David Given was a steal in the seventh. After the 2003 season, the Patriots used the extra No. 1 pick they got from Baltimore in the trade that allowed the Ravens to pick Kyle Boller on DT Vince Wilfork.

 

The Patriots did a lot of moving around in the drafts after their championships, and in many cases they were able to add players who had a hand in helping them win more Super Bowls.

 

2002: Starting with the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, three franchises have had the first overall pick in back-to-back seasons. Cincinnati and Cleveland each did it once. Tampa Bay did it twice.

 

Starting with the 1993 draft, the Buccaneers added John Lynch, Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Rhonde Barber, Anthony McFarland, Brian Kelly and Dexter Jackson, and that group was the foundation of the defense that dominated opponents on the way to the 2002 championship. Because the Buccaneers paid a price for Coach Jon Gruden that included their No. 1 pick in 2003, Tampa Bay was limited in the ensuing draft, a weekend that yielded DE Dewayne White, QB Chris Simms and little else.