The Steelers announced today that they will forfeit their fourth round pick in this weekend’s NFL draft.
The NFL sometimes forces teams to forfeit picks as a punishment. This happened to the Steelers in 2001. This move however is not the result of any disciplinary action.
Steelers Director of Football Operations Cevin Kolbert explains:
“Let’s face it, since I arrived in 2000 our track record in the fourth round isn’t too good. I mean, OK we did hit it picking Ike Taylor in the 4th in 2003 and Larry Foote in the 4th a year earlier, but other than that we’ve basically shot blanks – no offense to Willie Colon.”
In his first draft, Kolbert picked Danny Farmer in the fourth round and Farmer never made the team. When asked about his 2001 4th round pick Mathias Nkwenti, Kolbert responded “How do you spell BUST again?”
“We narrowly averted disaster in 2004 – we traded our fourth round pick. Since then we’ve picked Fred Gibson in 2005, Orien Harris in 2006, and Ryan McBean in 2007. If these names do not ring a bell, that’s because none of them made the team,” laments Kolbert.
Why forfeit instead of trading the pick? Kolbert explains, “2008 was an epiphany for us. We almost had to cut Tony Hills, Dan Sepulveda hurt himself, and everyone keeps insisting that Willie Colon should play guard. It became obvious. The pick is cursed for us. We trade the pick now and the player drafted haunt us later. That won’t happen now.”
La Toalla Terrible takes a lighter, tongue and cheek look at the Steelers. Click here to read La Toalla Terrible’s other writings (ravings?). If more serious analysis is your cup of tea, check out the rest of Steel Curtain Rising.
Oops.
It seems like in his reckless zeal, La Toalla Terrible mistakenly categorized Hank Poeat as a 4th round pick.
He was acutally the Steelers second third round pick in 2000. The mistake has been corrected.