Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor loves watching college football and on Tuesday, he shared his thoughts as to the direction that he believes his team will go in the first few rounds of the 2014 NFL Draft during his show on Trib Live Radio.
“This time, I think we might get a D-tackle, but we might lean towards getting a young secondary corner guy and take our chances with the other guy from Clemson. Not Sammy (Watkins), but the other receiver from Clemson,” said Taylor.”
The other Clemson receiver that Taylor is talking about the Steelers possibly taking in the second round is of course Martavis Bryant, one of the taller wide outs in this year’s draft class.
Taylor, however, later hedged on the Steelers going wide receiver in the second round.
“I think we might go defense-defense, because history has shown that’s what we did over the last couple of years when we had the 15th pick. We went defense and defense. So first round defense, second round defense.”
With all due respect to Taylor, the Steelers have only selected 15th overall in the draft once during the Kevin Colbert era. That’s not a lot of history to go on.
The last time the Steelers had the 15th overall selection was in 2007 and the drafted linebacker Lawrence Timmons. They followed up that pick in round two by selecting another defensive player in linebacker LaMarr Woodley.
In 2003, however, the Steelers traded up to in the first round and selected safety Troy Polamalu with the 16th overall selection. In round two of that draft, however, they stayed put and drafted linebacker Alonzo Jackson with the 59th overall selection.
Taylor is throwing draft darts like the rest of us, but whoever the Steelers do wind up taking in the first few rounds this year, the Steelers veteran cornerback thinks they better be ready to contribute right away as rookies.
“We need some impacts,” said Taylor. “Whether these kids know or it not, they are going to have to come in fast and play fast, and get grown fast, so they can help us out for this 2014 season. A lot of kids last year, who probably didn’t think they was going to play a lot, got an opportunity to, one, play a lot or start in some situations.”
There is no word as to when the Ike Taylor Draft Guide will be released, but you can probably bet he’ll have more to say about draft prospects over the course of the next two weeks.
