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ARTICLE
An honor, but also a burden
Thursday, April 27, 2006
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: 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. 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.
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
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 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 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 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. Starting with the 1993 draft, the
Buccaneers added |
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