The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2014 draft class had the potential to be among the best in franchise history. Unfortunately, all three players with limitless potential had their careers cut short for one reason or another. I am, of course, talking about Ryan Shazier, Stephon Tuitt, and Martavis Bryant. The premature endings to their respective careers have had a lasting ripple effect on the Steelers’ roster over the last decade. Some of those issues are still being dealt with to this day.
There is little debate about whether the Steelers have had issues in the draft over the last decade or so. That is one of the reasons they have started to become bigger spenders in free agency and why they haven’t been able to get over the hump in the playoffs. However, some of the shortcomings of the draft are overstated. The Steelers nailed the evaluations for all three players I listed above and even developed them properly. Other than maybe Bryant, they couldn’t have foreseen what ended up happening.
Shazier was their first-round pick, and he quickly turned into one of the best every-down linebackers in the league. He had playmaking ability, sideline-to-sideline speed, and plenty of instinct. He had six interceptions, five forced fumbles, 20 passes defensed, 3.5 sacks, and 12 tackles for loss over his final 25 games before a spine injury ended his career.
Shazier is just 32 years old. It’s not out of the question that he would still be on the roster to this day. It’s probably no surprise that the ILB position has been a weakness ever since. Just think about all of the personnel mistakes that have been made since then. Trading up in the first round to draft Devin Bush Jr. may have never happened, not to mention the various free-agent mistakes that have been made since then. The 2024 season is the closest the Steelers have gotten to the room being a strength since Shazier was around.
Drafted in the second round, Tuitt’s career lasted longer, but it was still cut short after seven seasons. In the last two seasons that he was healthy in 2018 and 2020, he played 29 games and had 16.5 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, 45 QB hits, and two forced fumbles. He was on the cusp of becoming a perennial Pro Bowl, and All-Pro type of player before a knee injury and a family tragedy forced him to look at his priorities and retire early from the league.
At 31 years old, Tuitt would likely still be holding down the defensive line alongside Heyward. Larry Ogunjobi wouldn’t have been a necessary signing, and they could have allocated those resources elsewhere. Now, the Steelers are in a position where they need to probably both draft a defensive lineman as well as sign one in free agency. A bunch of money and draft capital should be spent on the position this offseason, which may not have been necessary if Tuitt was around.
As for Bryant, his character issues were a bit more predictable, but he was a height/weight/speed specimen who instantly became very productive in the NFL as a fourth-round pick. He had 15 total TDs and over 1,300 receiving yards in two seasons before the NFL’s substance abuse policy cut his career short. The unfortunate part is that those rules have been relaxed since then.
Would the Steelers have used a third-round pick on Sammie Coates in 2015 if Bryant wasn’t dealing with his first substance abuse suspensions at the time? Would they have drafted Juju Smith-Schuster in the second round of 2017 or James Washington in the second round of 2018? It’s hard to say, but at least some of that valuable draft capital could have been spent elsewhere.
The misfortunes of the Steelers’ 2014 draft class caused them to invest countless draft picks and free-agent dollars to fill in the gaps. Those investments could have been used elsewhere to improve the rest of the roster. Instead, they’ve had too many holes to plug and zero playoff wins since the 2016 season.
