The Pittsburgh Steelers have not drafted a wide receiver in the first round since 2006 when they took Santonio Holmes out of Ohio State. Holmes went on to be a Super Bowl hero for the team, catching the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLIII. While Holmes didn’t set the world on fire as a rookie, he had a productive season, catching 49 balls for 824 yards and two touchdowns. That earned him an 80.1 grade from PFF, which is the highest grade a rookie has had since 2006 for the Steelers.
“Holmes did not see the field much early on in his rookie season (he played just 94 snaps through the first five games) but earned an every-down role as the season progressed,” PFF’s Ryan Smith wrote. “That season, 41 of his 49 receptions (83.6%) resulted in a first down.”
Holmes was playing in a receiver room that didn’t have a ton outside of Hines Ward, with Cedrick Wilson and Nate Washington rounding out the room. Holmes was the second-leading receiver behind Ward, who had 74 receptions for 975 yards and six touchdowns for the 8-8 Steelers. That season was also the last with Bill Cowher as the team’s head coach, as he retired after the season and Mike Tomlin took over.
Holmes took over as the team’s top receiver in ’07, with 52 receptions for 942 yards and eight touchdowns. It’s a little bit surprising though that he’s the highest-graded rookie the Steelers have had in that span. There have been a number of players who have come in and been productive as rookies, even without a ton of playing time, but it’s Holmes who takes the cake as Pittsburgh’s highest-graded rookie.
The number of his receptions that went for first downs surely helped raise his grade, and moving the chains is something that Holmes was good at throughout his tenure with the Steelers, as he had 184 first downs through the air during his four seasons in Pittsburgh. He was traded to the New York Jets ahead of the 2010 season and played four years with them, before wrapping his career up in 2014, playing nine games with the Chicago Bears.
Holmes was a solid draft pick whose tenure in Pittsburgh only ended due to off-field issues, and it’s worth wondering if Holmes could’ve had a more productive career had he stayed in Pittsburgh. His first and only 1,000-plus-yard season came the year before he was traded, when he had 79 receptions for 1,248 yards and five touchdowns. If he stayed with a prime Ben Roethlisberger, Holmes’ career certainly could’ve looked a bit different.
