Apr 25, 2016 6 min read

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As is typically been the case over the years, there aren’t any real specifics talked about in the Steelers’ pre-draft press conference – at least not since GM Kevin Colbert chastised head coach Mike Tomlin for mentioning Darrelle Revis by name back in 2007.

But if you could read between the lines today, there was some information to be gleaned.

When asked about the nose tackle position, Colbert said what many in the media – including myself – had been saying for the past few months.

“We are still a base 3-4 team, and the nose tackle is still part of the defense,” Colbert said. “We’ve talked about it numerous times in the offseason. The nose tackle gets removed because of the matchups you have to have, schematically, when people put three or four wide receivers in the game. That occurred probably 75 percent of the time last year. The nose tackle’s importance probably has diminished, probably just from a sheer numbers standpoint. He just won’t see the field as often as he had in the past.

“But there still will be times when you have to stop the run. We might be behind in the game and the other team is going to decide to run the football, and clock us out to not get our offense back on the field. So we still have to be able to stop it. It’s not like they are completely extinct. Even if some of those nose tackle types are in your defense, maybe not as starters, but as package players, subbing in and out for some of the other guys that may be starters in sub-package, they have to be able to respond to draws, because teams love to get you in 3-4 wide to get those big people off the field. They drop a draw on you, and they get 15-20 yards. You are behind the eight-ball again. There is still a spot for big people that can stop the run, probably just not as frequently as they have in the past.”

Does that mean the Steelers absolutely won’t take a nose tackle in the first round? No. Does it make it more unlikely? Yes.

But the nose tackle they would take would have to be really, really special, perhaps even better than Casey Hampton, who was outstanding against the run but limited as a pass rusher.

To that point, Colbert said that some of the nose tackle types in this draft have been a little better prepared in college.

“A lot of those kids have 4-5-6 sacks to go along with their ability to play the run, because they are doing it in college,” Colbert said. “They might be rushing the passer. They can be a nose tackle in a conventional defense, but the majority of them are playing against spread offenses and have to rush the passer at some point.”

It is still, however, not their primary skill or best ability. After all, Hampton showed ability to get to the passer in college. He was an All-America performer and had nearly 60 career pressures at Texas.

But that was against college competition. Against NFL competition, his pass rushing skills barely registered. He had nine career sacks.

I did ask Colbert how the team addresses players who were injured for all or much of the 2015 college season since a number of high-profile players are dealing with such issues.

“We won’t be able to verify certain things, like 40-yard dashes or change of direction. So, you evaluate them based on what they did and you follow that up with what our doctors will tell us, when they will be healthy,” Colbert said. “It’s a projection, it’s a guess and we have to take a calculated risk, and we’ll try to do that. But, we can just go on the information we got from watching them play. We have no workout information and as you mentioned. We drafted a guy like Heath Miller who had a great career. But our doctors have to be part of that decision and they have to give us an idea about when and if that player can return from that injury. And there will be risk involved, but part of that falls on our evaluation and part of that will fall on the doctors’ medical evaluation, as to whether or not they think they can make it back. And we just have to put those two together.”

The Steelers have shown a great interest in West Virginia safety Karl Joseph, but Virginia Tech corner Kendall Fuller also would fall into this category.

Would the Steelers consider a player in the first round who might not be ready to go when the season starts?

“The doctors will project whether he should be ready,” Colbert said hypothetically. “But we don’t know that until minicamp, OTA’s or maybe training camp. So, a lot of times you go into it with a mindset that this player may have to start the season on the PUP List. And then, factor that into your evaluation. If he is only going to be a PUP guy, can we take him in a certain round? If he exceeds that, then it’s a bonus.”

Tomlin also added some fuel to the speculation fire when he talked about players who didn’t have big production in terms of interception numbers or pass breakups in college.

Tomlin said he trusts what he sees on tape regarding those players, rather than just looking at the numbers.

“I don’t think there’s any substitute for looking at the video. The video tells you a lot, often explains a lot,” Tomlin said. “It will explain the presence of statistics or the lack of statistics, the schematics and what they’re asked to do. Certain things you pick up just from watching video and it might explain some of those questions you might have. That’s why, obviously, the video is a significant portion of the equation for us.”

Colbert quickly added, “Just because a guy doesn’t have an interception doesn’t mean his receiver was the intended receiver. Maybe he just did that good of a job at covering that the quarterback looked elsewhere and chose not to throw it. Sometimes guys have reputations where teams go into a game knowing he’s a pretty good cover corner and they’ll look elsewhere to throw the ball. So, sometimes that can be misleading. Sometimes guys with the higher stats have been challenged more. But as Coach mentioned, you really have to just study the video and make a guess as to why the production might not have been equal for two guys.”

Does that mean that a player such as Mackensie Alexander, who did not record an interception in two college seasons, could be in play? Possibly. It at least means the Steelers are taking a good long, hard look at him.