Steelers Source

Adrian Jones

Problem solved, yeah right. Today the Steelers signed offensive lineman Adrian Jones. Jones was a fourth round draft pick of the New York Jets back in 2004, where he started in 44 games. Lately he spent 2008 with the Kansas City Chiefs starting 10 games, and last season on the Houston Texas’ practice squad. He’s a big body at 6-4 and 330 pounds, but I’m not doing cartwheels given some of the bigger names that were unsigned free agents.

So old Chuck has received some grief on the inclusion of Kendrell Bell as #10 on the Top Ten Draft Busts list. In the interest of full disclosure I’ll come clean on this one. He was an odd duck on the list since everyone else unequivocally deserved to be there. I guess I’m just still bitter he didn’t become one of the Steeler greats at linebacker and I lashed out. There you got me, happens to the best of us.

The commonly held perception at the time was that Kansas City stole him away with a huge payday. In fact, the Steelers didn’t want him since by that time his knees and ankle were shot. Before signing with Kansas City, he was very close to signing with the New York Giants but flunked their physical. One of the many things that the Steelers are great at is letting players go before the big downturn starts to happen. Hear that Willie?

So here is the promised trip down memory lane. I decided on a big ground rule in that I was only going to include picks from the past 10 years and limit it to the first 3 rounds, since much after that is a complete crap shoot. I’m also not going to look at last year’s draft class since you’ve got to allow some time for players to develop. So in bust order going from 1 to 10 with number 10 being the biggest miss on draft day:

1. 2001 – Kendrell Bell (LB), Georgia, 2nd round. I’m calling this one a bust because I think it is a good example of scheme and the players around him rather than talent. Played in the same linebacking corps as Earl Holmes, Joey Porter, and Jason Gildon. Had a great rookie season with 9 sacks and named AP Defensive Rookie of the Year. Afterwards he played another respectable 2 years in Pittsburgh, but left in year 4 to take big money from the Kansas City Chiefs. This is when the real deal emerged and he career took a nose drive.
2. 2000 – Kendrick Clancy (DT), Mississippi, 3rd round (a). 5 years with Pittsburgh, 22 tackles.
3. 1998 – Chirs Conrad (OT), Fresno State, 3rd round (a). 2 seasons and gone.
4. 2004 – Ricardo Colclough (CB), Tusculum, 2nd round. 4 years, played in 22 games, and 1 interception.
5. 1998 – Jeremy Staat (DE), Arizona State, 2nd round. 4 years, played in 31 games and out of the league.
6. 1999 – Kris Farris (OT), UCLA, 3rd round (b). This guy won the Outland Trophy in college and played in 3 games before being out of the league.
7. 2008 – Limas Sweed (WR), Texas, 2nd round. I don’t know what to say about this one other than to point you to an older blog post on this one. Currently missing in action.
8. 1999 – Scott Shields (S), Weber State, 2nd round. Played in 16 games as a rookie with 4 interceptions, but followed that up with 10 games in 2000, no interceptions and gone.
9. 1999 – Troy Edwards (WR), Louisiana Tech, 1st round. Only played three years in Pittsburgh gaining 1,200 yards receiving in that time. 5 touchdowns as a rookie but none in the next 2 years. Not exactly what you are looking for in a number 1 pick.
10. 2003 – Alonzo Jackson (LB), Florida, 2nd round. Spent 2 years in Pittsburgh and played in a grand total of 9 games. Awesome.

An honorable mention here should go out to my man;

• 2000 – Plaxico Burress (WR), Michigan State, 1st round. Yes he had a good year with the New York Giants, but dropped a lot of important balls while in Pittsburgh. I would have to give the award to worst class to 1999 with Edwards, Shields, and Farris.