12/17/2023 0 Comments Dude stop game full play threwIt took a few years for him to gain national recognition, perhaps illuminated by Le’Veon Bell’s success. But he hit the ground running come 2013, starting 15 games. Things got off to a slow start his rookie year, an injury limiting him to just three starts in 2012. But the Football Gods smiled down upon Kevin Colbert and he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity. #9 David DeCastro/OG Stanford – Round 1, 24th Overall (2012)Ī gift that fell into the Steelers’ lap, few expected DeCastro to be there with Pittsburgh’s 24th pick. And from the fourth round makes it an even sweeter gem. The fact he made the top ten with few personal accolades, Pro Bowls, All-Pros, and the like, tells you how good he was. Not bad for back-to-back picks in 20.Īs a Steeler, Taylor started on two Super Bowl winning teams and goes down as an all-around excellent player. Taylor and Larry Foote are the only fourth rounders with 100+ starts in Colbert’s career. Those 140 starts are also the most of any fourth rounder in Colbert history. The only true CB with more starts than Taylor’s in team history is Mel Blount, incredibly company to be part of. His 140 starts rank inside the top 25 in team history and are fifth most of any of Colbert’s selections. Tough, athletic, a little flash but not over the top. Taylor had confidence but not arrogance and embodied what it meant to be a Steeler. Picking off just 14 career passes and dropping probably just that many, Taylor never made a Pro Bowl. But he could and would clamp top receivers week-after-week with remarkable durability and availability.įrom 2005 to 2013, age 25 to age 33, Taylor missed just four games, all coming in 2012. Taylor used that speed to be a lockdown cornerback on Steelers’ teams that relied on him to erase top opposing receivers. Though unconfirmed, trainer Tom Shaw claims Taylor ran a 4.18 40 in his career which would blow John Ross’ record out of the water. One of Kevin Colbert’s best Day Three gems, Taylor is also arguably the fastest player Colbert ever took. #10 Ike Taylor/CB UL-Lafayette – Round 4, 125th Overall (2003) Though this is the finale, we will be doing one recap article later this week with a couple interesting tidbits and conclusions from this series. If you want to check out part twelve, click the link here. You know the names but the order may surprise you. In Part thirteen of the series, we’ll work through the top ten, #10 through #1. These articles will include roughly 15 names at a time, though the number may sometimes change based on the grouping. There may be some surprises, controversy, and plenty of blasts from the past along the way. We’ll work down this list #176 to #1, meaning we’ll begin with the worst selection Colbert’s ever made until we get to his best pick. I also weighed the round/selection the player was drafted in, slight consideration to positional value, the process in which the player was picked, and of course, the quality of the players Steelers’ career. Players struggle for different reasons but it’s too subjective trying to make those kinds of excuses. If a player got hurt or traded or cut or whatever, we’ll accept it without examining it. What we won’t consider are circumstances that led to a player’s success of failure. The player may have worked out but not to Pittsburgh’s benefit and that’s the only thing that matters. Even if the selection had a good or great career elsewhere, and you’ll see examples of that, it is excluding from consideration. In creating the rankings, I considered *only* what the player did in a Steelers’ uniform. We’ll revisit and remember the best picks, the first round studs, Day Three steals to the busts and the guys who simply never did anything in Pittsburgh. I am, obviously, leaving out the 2022 draft class since they are impossible to judge in any capacity. What I’ll continue doing today is recapping and ranking all the draft picks Colbert made in his tenue with the team. Lots of highs, two Super Bowls added to the trophy case, and the occasional low, but overall, a fantastic career for a – by all accounts – fantastic person. His career has so much in it, running the team since 2000. Kevin Colbert is calling it a career as GM, or de facto GM, of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Part thirteen and the final installment of a series I’ve been exploring over the next several weeks.
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