Draft Recap: Pitt Panthers Edition

Technically the name “Blitzburgh Blog” only implies Steeler coverage. We watch all the Pittsburgh sports. We came from WPIAL high schools and we root for them. Bam and Matt are loyal to Penn State, while Brian is attending the University of Pittsburgh. As such, we may be tempted to post about our alma maters once in a while.

Pitt had a nice showing at the NFL draft this year, presumably to make up for their not-so-nice showing at Heinz Field last fall. Five players taken, two in the first two rounds. Not bad for a not-that-great football school.

First up, Jonathan Baldwin. Baldwin has supreme talent but he was stuck in a run-heavy system at Pitt. Had he been in a spread offense with a good quarterback, he could have gone in the top 10, but instead he had Bill Stull and Tino Sunseri tossing him passes twice a game. There have been percieved attitude problems with Baldwin, with a dropped disorderly conduct charge in 2009 and some controversial remarks made towards the organization after Dave Wannstedt’s departure.
To any Chiefs fans reading this (no idea why you would be, but welcome to the blog!) don’t worry about Baldwin off the field. He’s not going to do anything worse than Todd Haley might. On the field, the Baldwin-Bowe tandem has the potential to be up there with Haley’s Boldin-Fitzgerald dynamic duo. Matt Cassel is going to enjoy throwing passes this year.

Of all the teams to draft Sheard, the Browns? What a shame. Sheard was a stud on an impressive defensive line at Pitt, and will unfortunately be a stud on Cleveland’s defensive line for the forseeable future. There’s a loss that might hurt Pitt more than any other next year. You can’t have a good defense without a good line. Mike Holmgren recognized that, and now Jabaal Sheard is wearing an ugly orange helmet and brown jersey.

OH COME ON CLEVELAND. Stop turning my beloved Pitt Panthers against me. Not sure what you can really say about Jason Pinkston. His line blocked for an excellent running game the past few seasons, and now instead of Dion Lewis and Ray Graham and Henry Hynoski, he’ll be leading the charge for Peyton Hillis and… Josh Cribbs in the wildcat, I guess.

Speaking of Dion Lewis, he got drafted by the Eagles. Because they liked LeSean McCoy so much that I guess they wanted to draft him again. I love Dion, but seriously the dude had one awesome season in his first year and lost the starting job to Ray Graham the next. He’s pretty small to be an NFL running back, and I have concerns about his consistency. The Eagles only spent a 5th round pick on him though, so perhaps it’s a calculated gamble. He can make plays when he has the ball in space, it just remains to be seen if he’ll be able to get in space in the NFL from the running back position.

I feel awful for Greg Romeus. Had it not been for a few dramatic injuries in his final season at Pitt, he could have been a top-5 overall pick. Unfortunately, once you injure your neck like Romeus did, your draft stock plummets. If he can fully recover without any lingering issues, then the New Orleans Saints got the steal of the decade in the 7th round. You have to root for a guy like Romeus, who suffered possibly the biggest setback imaginable en route to the NFL, and he’s still being given a chance.

And of course, there are a few players that didn’t end up on anyone’s draft board, despite some legitimate football skills. Once the lockout gets lifted, teams will be able to sign college free agents and these guys will probably land somewhere for training camp.

Hank Hynoski was my favorite player for the Pitt Panthers the past few years. I know, you must be saying, “Brian, your favorite player was a fullback who made a living on bone-crushing blocks with the occasional pile-driving run up the middle? I am stunned.” Well shut up, Henry Hynoski is a fantastic player. A big hulking Polish fullback who probably grew up on a farm? If you asked the general city of Pittsburgh to design the perfect football player, they would design for you Hank “the Tank” Hynoski. Unfortunately the NFL doesn’t really do “fullbacks” or “running the football” anymore so Hyno the Rhino went undrafted.

DeCicco is a tough player to evaluate. If you watched him play, you can see he’s got great football sense. After every play on the defense, if he didn’t make the tackle, he was on top of the guy that did. It says a lot about a defender if he’s always around the ball at the end of every play. Not only that, but he was the on-field playcaller for the defense. He read formations and made adjustments. His problem is that he’s not quite athletic enough (read: he is white) to be an NFL DB, but he’s a bit too small to be an effective NFL linebacker. His realistic ceiling is probably running down the middle of the field to cover kicks and maybe get some time as a nickel or dime DB in certain packages, which is a good fit for his athletic ability, but sadly his football instincts and intelligence will probably go to waste there.