Some interesting news Monday night via Jason La Canfora on Twitter as he reports the Pittsburgh Steelers had a draft day trade in place with the New York Jets to move up to the 16th spot in the first round to select guard David DeCastro. According to a tweet by La Canfora, the Jets were willing to move back to the Steelers spot at 24 thinking they would be able to select either Bruce Irvin or Quinton Coples. Once the Seattle Seahawks selected Irvin with the 15th overall selection, the Jets reportedly backed out of the deal and went ahead and drafted Coples reports La Canfora.
It is unknown what the Steelers would have had to give up to move up from 24 to 16, but it doesn\’t matter at this point. Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert was asked during his press conference following the first round if he had entertained the idea of trading up to draft the Stanford guard and Colbert replied, “Before the draft, we identified several players that we’d trade up to get, and he was one of them. I’ll leave it at that.”
Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good and you have to wonder how the whole complexion of the Steelers draft might have changed had they had to give up a few picks to move up those 8 spots. Would they still have had the ammunition to trade up and get nose tackle Alameda Ta\’amu in the fourth round? Would they have even had a third round pick to draft Sean Spence? Would they have been able to take a chance on Mike Adams in round two, assuming they would not have had to give up that pick? It blows your mind to think how the whole draft might have changed.
In the end the Steelers waited patiently and got their man without having to move up at all. The Seahawks selection of Irvin really caught several by surprise in the first round and that very well could have been the initial domino that fell that led to the Steelers getting their steal at 24 in DeCastro.
