Round 1: Steelers select Ryan Shazier, LB Ohio State

By Ray Fittipaldo / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Steelers selected Ohio State outside linebacker Ryan Shazier with the No. 15 pick in the NFL draft tonight.

The Steelers had the opportunity to take Michigan State cornerback Darqueze Dennard to fulfill their need at cornerback, but they opted for a playmaker for the middle of their defense.

Shazier is projected to play inside in the Steelers’ defense and eventually will be teamed with Lawrence Timmons, who also was drafted at No. 15 by the Steelers in 2007.

Shazier, a 6-foot, 237-pounder who came out as a junior, started 29 games for the Buckeyes and twice led them in tackles.

“His production speaks for itself,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “His tape says he doesn’t need my endorsement. He plays with a lot of urgency. He was a significant contributor and really improved through his stay there.”

Tomlin added: “Quite frankly, the guy has no holes.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2014/05/08/Steelers-pick-Ohio-State-OLB-Ryan-Shazier-in-first-round/stories/201405080328#ixzz31BMoXjHP

Video (Shazier on being drafted by the Steelers): http://www.nfl.com/videos/pittsburgh-steelers/0ap2000000348246/Shazier-Pittsburgh-is-the-great-franchise-of-all-time

Highlights:

"Pittsburgh is the greatest franchise of all time."

"I feel that my No. 1 skill set is getting to the ball. Honestly, because if you ask me to pass rush, I can pass rush. If you ask me to drop into coverage, I can drop into coverage. And if it's stop the run, I can stop the run."

"Honestly, I did not think they was going to draft me, but I'm very, very happy that they did. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I'm playing for the greatest franchise."

We need help at cb. Dont know how many times it needs to be said. Cincy and B-More have solid olines and speed to burn at WR. Unless we have new blitz schemes, we have no answer for this.

Quote :

Shazier's speed at linebacker too "rare" to pass up for Steelers

By Ron Musselman
Times NFL Correspondent

PITTSBURGH – Cornerback and wide receiver were considered the Steelers’ two most pressing needs Thursday night in the first round of the NFL draft.

But when it came to pick 15th overall, Pittsburgh opted for a different direction in an effort to rebuild its aging defense.

The Steelers surprised many with the selection of 21-year-old Ohio State linebacker Ryan Shazier, who ran 4.38 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in February.

“When you’re talking about a guy running a sub-4.5, that’s rare air,” coach Mike Tomlin said.

http://www.timesonline.com/sports/shazier-s-speed-at-linebacker-too-rare-to-pass-up/article_2f55344c-be49-55d1-a0a9-04e913fc3241.html

He may very well be a good player, but we need that speed at corner. BMore got better, Cincy has lots of speed, and we have..................Ike Taylor?

Steeltown beatdown wrote:

He may very well be a good player, but we need that speed at corner. BMore got better, Cincy has lots of speed, and we have..................Ike Taylor?

I certainly don't disagree with you that we need a CB. Coming into the draft, that's what I wanted and where I thought they'd go. But our pass rush has been horrible. With a weak pass rush, it doesn't matter how good the corners are. So having a player like Shazier should help the pass rush and, therefore, also help the secondary. Also, having Shazier should eliminate the need to have Troy constantly playing at the line like another linebacker. Having Troy play more of a traditional safety role will help the secondary. So although we didn't draft a CB, having Shazier should improve our secondary. We still need to find a replacement for Ike, so hopefully that gets addressed soon.

Unrelated to the above post, but I just saw this and figured I'd post it:

Good article by Cook:

What?

You would have preferred the Steelers take Johnny Manziel?

You don't really prefer buzz over a quality football player, do you?

Is the overrated, overhyped, sickeningly self-promoting Manziel still on the NFL draft board, by the way?

OK, enough of Johnny (Deflated) Football, at least for now.

The Steelers never were interested in Manziel, which gave them something in common Thursday night with seemingly all of the other NFL clubs. Let's look at their first-round selection of Ohio State inside linebacker Ryan Shazier, taken No. 15 overall.

I get the confusion and dismay with the pick. Shazier isn't a cornerback, a position of desperate need on a Steelers team with old Ike Taylor, unproven Cortez Allen and little else. He's also not a wide receiver, another spot that needs strengthened after the off-season losses of free agents Emmanuel Sanders and Jerricho Cotchery.

But don't lose sight of reality here. The Steelers were an 8-8 team last season. Actually, they were 8-8 in each of the past two seasons, failing to make the playoffs each year. They have many needs.

"What we needed was a defensive playmaker," coach Mike Tomlin said after emerging from the Steelers' draft room. "[Shazier] fits the bill in that regard. His production speaks for itself. He doesn't need my endorsement. This guy is going to make a lot of plays for us all over the football field."

The Steelers have a star at inside linebacker in Lawrence Timmons. But after that? Vince Williams? He was a starter last season by default after Larry Foote was injured and lost for the year in the first game and Kion Wilson failed as a replacement. Sean Spence? He still is trying to come back from a catastrophic knee injury in the 2012 preseason and has no guarantees of making it.

If you really think about it, Shazier makes perfect sense.

As long as he can play, of course.

"This was an easy evaluation," Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert said.

Of course, Colbert said that.

You expected him to say the Steelers picked a man they didn't like?

You might say Shazier blinded the Steelers' brass with his speed. Colbert said they timed him at 4.40 seconds in the 40. The team clearly put enough value in that to overlook Shazier's rather smallish size -- 6-foot-1, 237 pounds.

"This guy can flat out run," Colbert said. "As offenses continue to spread out, you need speed ... You need speed everywhere."

If nothing else, give the Steelers credit for making their defense their top priority. Going into the draft, they faced a dilemma with their No. 1 pick. Do they bolster a potent offense and try to outscore opponents in 2014? Or do they go for help for their troubled defense, their biggest weakness the past two seasons?

The Steelers made the right call going for defensive help. It still wins championships. I offer the Seattle Seahawks as proof. They beat the Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl XLVIII last season, shutting down the greatest offense in the history of the game to do it.

A cornerback would have been nice with the first pick, but the top two -- Oklahoma State's Justin Gilbert and Virginia Tech's Kyle Fuller -- were gone before the Steelers picked. They passed on Michigan State's Darqueze Dennard, who dropped like a rock through the draft, all the way to the Cincinnati Bengals at No. 24.

were off the board, as was North Carolina's Eric Ebron, who's more of a wide receiver than a tight end.

Reality check No. 2:

Colbert says this is the deepest draft in his 30 years in the NFL. The Steelers have eight more picks. They will be able to get at least one quality cornerback and wide receiver before Saturday night rolls around.

As for Manziel, he finally did find a home -- Cleveland. Somehow, it seems only right that the Browns took him with the No. 22 pick. They have been searching for decades for a franchise quarterback with no luck. Manziel will be another in their long line of busts. His reckless, free-wheeling style won't translate to NFL success. His undersized body won't stand up to the punishment.

So let Cleveland have the buzz for now.

It will wish it added another good player later


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/2014/05/09/Ron-Cook-Shazier-selected-for-sensibility-not-buzz/stories/201405090131#ixzz31DUvYqKo

I like the pick. I'm excited to see what he can do for us. I bet we get a CB in the second round.

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Kovacevic: Steelers better be right this time

They'd better be right.

To put it kindly, the Steelers' brass hasn't earned the benefit of anyone's doubt over the past half-decade's worth of evaluating college talent. So when their turn came Thursday night in the NFL Draft at No. 15 overall, and pretty much the entirety of the football world anticipated a cornerback — the franchise's greatest need by such a margin that there's no real runner-up — the name called was that of … an inside linebacker: Ohio State's Ryan Shazier.

As Mike Tomlin would say, obviously.

And as Tomlin and Kevin Colbert actually did say moments after making the pick at the Steelers' South Side HQ, if anyone thought they'd set out to fill a specific need, then think again.

“You have to put blinders on the ‘need' word,” Colbert said. “What we needed was a defensive playmaker. And he's a defensive playmaker.”

I asked both men if the glaring need at corner — Ike Taylor is 34, and he and Cortez Allen are coming off rough seasons — ever entered into their decision.

Colbert: “Ryan Shazier was someone we valued very highly. We're well aware of who we have on our team. But when we can add a player of quality, it'll override the need anytime.”

Tomlin: “This is a highly productive guy, with about 150 tackles this past season at Ohio State. This guy's going to make a lot of football plays for us all over the field.”

Those are all fair points, if isolated. But a 53-man roster is never built in isolation, least of all one coming off consecutive 8-8 seasons.

http://triblive.com/sports/dejankovacevic/dejancolumns/6083189-74/steelers-shazier-draft#axzz31BjnDKkB

Kovacevic said: ... the Steelers' brass hasn't earned the benefit of anyone's doubt over the past half-decade's worth of evaluating college talent.

That might be true if we take the entire drafts into consideration. But look at the first-round picks since 2000:

Plaxico Burress
Casey Hampton
Kendall Simmons
Troy Polamalu
Ben Roethlisberger
Heath Miller
Lawrence Timmons
Rashard Mendenhall
Ziggy Hood
Maurkice Pouncey
Cameron Heyward
David DeCastro
Jarvis Jones

I'd say they've earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the first round. Is there a team that has picked better than the Steelers in the first round over the past 14 years?

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Ohio St. Defensive Coordinator On Ryan Shazier: Nobody Makes Big Plays Better

PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) – Most fans seemed to be caught off guard by the Steelers drafting Ohio State linebacker Ryan Shazier with the 15th overall pick in the first round, so Ohio State co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Luke Fickell joined Starkey and Mueller to tell us what sort of player the Steelers just landed.

Things started out with Fickell telling us he has coached a lot of great players at Ohio State, but there is one key factor that separates Shazier from the rest of them.

“I’ve had the fortune of coaching a lot of really, really good ones; obviously, some great ones, but the one thing the guy has that I haven’t seen is the ability to make big plays,” said Fickell.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/05/09/ohio-st-defensive-coordinator-on-ryan-shazier-nobody-makes-big-plays-better/

Quote :

Shazier is Steelers' answer to trend

Bob Labriola
Steelers.com

Based on their study of the 2013 NFL season, the Steelers learned they had aligned in their base 3-4 defense about one-third of the time. In other words, through personnel groupings opponents put the Steelers in one of their sub-packages twice as often as they were in their base defense.

Because of this, because of the evolution of NFL offenses and the way the sport is now officiated, it only made sense to the Steelers that they take appropriate steps to deal with this reality.

Their method of dealing took shape during the first round of this draft when they used the No. 15 overall pick to add Ryan Shazier, who arrived in Pittsburgh earlier today for a meet-and-greet and then an introductory news conference, and he brought with him a set of measurables that can re-define the position he is slated to play.

http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/Shazier-is-Steelers-answer-to-trend-/abc9fa84-de6b-4549-bdc5-e3190a6e62f7

OK, maybe I'm thinking about this all wrong, but here goes ...

It's interesting that Labriola says Shazier has the talent to redefine the position. That's nothing new in Pittsburgh ... Troy redefined the safety position, and Ward kind of redefined the receiver position.

Offenses have evolved, and what we're seeing more and more of is tight ends being used like receivers. Their size makes them hard to cover and tackle. We have no one in our secondary who can cover a tight end like Rob Gronkowski (few teams do). Cornerbacks are too small ... linebackers are too slow. But Shazier has the size and speed to cover a tight end like Gronkowski. As offenses have evolved, so too must defenses. Most of us wanted a cornerback in the first round, but how would Darqueze Dennard help us in shutting down a tight end like Gronkowski? As more offenses use tight ends like another receiver, we need someone on defense who can cover them. That guy is Ryan Shazier.

Shazier can cover big, fast tight ends. He can help stop the run. And he can get to the quarterback. And perhaps most importantly, he's a playmaker, which is something our defense desperately needs. What's not to like?  

Well, that's my way of looking at it.