Cowher vs Tomlin: Draft comparison, the early years

Seems like all we hear about these days is Mike Wallace, the salary cap, and the constant over analyzing of every restricted and unrestricted free agent on the Steelers.  Before that it was Haley vs Roethlisberger, or the power struggle in Pittsburgh that never was.  You can only beat those topics so much before it becomes out of control. We’ve more than covered all of that and then some here on SA and when more news happens we’ll be on top of it like always.   In the mean time though let’s look at something different for a change.

NFL front offices like the Steelers are busy in draft day preparation as much as they are trying to figure out the salary cap and how to work their strategy for free agency.  All the data that Kevin Colbert and the rest of the Steelers staff that was on hand at the combine will be used to start really getting the war room draft boards organized. Over the next nearly 2 months, there will be meetings, player workouts, interviews, phone calls, and brain storming sessions about who will best fit the Steelers organization.

Drafting is an art form, it takes an extreme attention to detail and years of experience in assessing player personalities and character traits as well as physical abilities. The Steelers have been blessed with good front office personnel who know what it means to find the right player to fit into the Pittsburgh persona. Even with all that knowledge and experience it’s still impossible to hit the big time on every draft pick every year.  Which got me thinking on how the Steelers have drafted in the first years of Bill Cowher’s tenure vs the first years of Mike Tomlin’s regime.

We put together a chart that shows the draft picks under Cowher from 1992-1996 and Tomlin from 2007-2011. A few things to keep in mind though; prior to the mid 90′s the draft lasted much longer than 7 rounds.  It goes without saying that the head coach isn’t the only one that decides who gets drafted.  It’s a collaberative effort between scouts, assistant coaches, the owner, general manager, team doctors, and other personnel. Therefore neither Bill Cowher or Mike Tomlin can be attributed with all the credit or blame for any draftees. Having said that, the head coach usually has the final say unless there is a unique situation where the owner or general manager feels very strongly about one player or another.

I think it’s interesting to look at the players over the years that these coaches have drafted and how some years are more successful than others. For example, the first year each coaches’ draft was quite successful. Three of first four draft picks for  Tomlin ended up starting (Matt Spaeth saw significant action in the backup role behind Heath Miller). For Cowher, all 4 of his original draftees ended up starting.

I gotta say I still miss seeing big old Levon Kirkland out there patrolling the middle of the Steelers defense. I digress though, or we could be here for a novel length article reminiscing about the Steeler greats of the past. So anyway, I hope you enjoy the look back comparison of how the most recent coaches for the Steelers have started out their careers. You can draw your own conclusions…

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