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so listen, kids, if you're just gonna leave this franchise QB lying here on the ground, i'm a go ahead and pick that up. in reality, this is the point in the draft where some QB-desperate franchise (jags? philly? cards?) trades their high second-round pick, along with their house, car, wife and kids (i.e. next year's 1st and more) to the steelers for this pick. and in reality, the steelers happily take that deal, fall back to the top of the 2nd round, and start stocking up on WRs/LBs and maybe grab eddie lacy for shigs and gits.
but this isn't reality (as evidenced by the fact that geno smith is available here at the 17th pick). this is okp, and no trades allowed. on top of that, let's say no team wants to mortgage the farm to move up this high. okay. geno is still the pick. ben's 31 years old, his contract is up in 2015, and i don't buy him as the type of QB who can play into his late 30's. he takes too many hits, plays the game way too hard. he'll be done when his contract is. rarely does the best QB in the draft fall this far, and there's no guarantee the steelers will be in a position to take one this highly-rated in the next two drafts. so it's time to take the plunge.
the immediate upside is that we get a backup QB to replace batch and leftwich's game-managing mediocrity. the immediate downside is that by having as your backup a high-pedigree kid from a local school (WVU is firmly in pittsburgh's holy trinity of college sports alongside pitt and penn state), you're risking extreme fan restlessness if and when a rapidly-aging ben struggles. they'll be calling for geno after his first TD in his first preseason game. but i wouldn't draft geno here if i didn't have faith that tomlin could manage this situation properly and use his one ring of power to keep the yinzers at bay.
long-term, geno spends the next two years learning the position under a two-time super bowl winning QB, then hopefully competes for the job in 2015. in 2016, the year ben hits the bricks, geno's either ready and the transition of power is rodgersesque, or he's not and we're drafting the next guy (or turning to free agency) and moving on. either way, you're greatly minimizing the chance that ben's coming departure leaves the steelers wandering the desert for half a decade.
in the actual draft, where geno is long gone by now, patterson is the pick. if he's gone, it's eifert. this is operation save todd haley from himself. our offense was so predictably bad last year, that only by stocking it with uncoverable physical specimens can it succeed under haley. some believe the first priority should be restocking our LBs. i disagree strongly. i trust lebeau to mcgyver his way to another top 10 defense. haley needs all the help he can get.
my worst nightmare, the one i wake up from at night in a cold sweat, involves me sitting in the steelers war room on draft day. we're on the board and i'm in the cockpit. i'm geared up, set to take patterson, phone on the table in front of me, but i can't move. i can't open my mouth. i'm paralyzed. there's one minute left. we're about to forfeit the pick. just then, a smug-looking todd haley walks into the room, picks up the phone, and announces the steelers' selection. tavon austin. NO! i scream in my head. NO!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! HE'S TOO SMALL! I DON'T CARE HOW FAST HE IS! WHY WOULD YOU DRAFT A RECEIVER THAT SMALL IN THE 1ST ROUND?! but no one can hear me. haley then winks at me, turns to the man next to him-- troy edwards-- and says, watch, this kid is gonna be the next dexter mccluster. NO!! NOOO!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! "i smack clowns with nouns, punch herbs with verbs..."
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