PITTSBURGH — Now that Terrell Edmunds is Philly bound, one player remains from the Steelers’ thoroughly unexciting draft class of 2018, and that is thoroughly average right tackle Chuks Okorafor.
They could always bring back Marcus Allen, I suppose, but only if they need somebody to infiltrate the other team’s huddle.
A class that should be in its prime, with multiple players helping the Steelers, instead has busted apart.
It’ll go down in history like this:
— Edmunds (31st overall)
— James Washington (60th, 2nd round)
— Mason Rudolph (76th, 3rd round)
— Okorafor (92nd, 3rd round)
— Allen (148th, 5th round)
— Jaylen Samuels (155th, 5th round)
— Joshua Frazier (246th, 7th round)
Some of those guys had their moments. I’ll say that much. Edmunds had some good games, including a 10-tackle performance against the Bucs last season. Samuels ran for 142 yards in a win against the Patriots. Washington made some spectacular catches, including one flat on his back that helped beat the Cleveland Browns in the rematch after the Myles Garrett debacle.
Speaking of which, don’t ever say the ’18 class won’t be remembered, because it also delivered at least two of the most calamitous moments in franchise history. A helmet-less Rudolph starred in the Garrett incident, and Allen made himself a national story by joining the Carolina Panthers’ huddle.
Mostly though, Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert delivered a series of misevaluations here. The drafting of Rudolph — and later telling the world they had a “first-round grade” on him — was a disaster. This was not the time to take a flier on Ben Roethlisberger’s potential successor, and Roethlisberger himself was quick to point that out, saying the Steelers could have used the pick to help the team immediately. Rudolph, now a free agent all these years later, has not yet found a backup job.
But the centerpiece of any draft is the first-round pick, and that leads to a discussion of Edmunds, who last week took a pay cut in signing with the defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles. Steelers general manager Omar Khan said he made Edmunds an offer, and the only thing we know about that offer is this: It couldn’t have been much.
Was Edmunds a bad player here?
No. He was an average player, a splash-free player who did not force a single fumble (and only recovered one) in five years as the starting strong safety. He averaged one interception and one sack per season, settling mostly into a role as a box safety, although he did play different positions. He was a fairly steady presence, but it was not a mistake to let him go. Average players should be easy to replace.
Was he a bad pick?
That’s a different question, and the answer is based mostly on position. You don’t draft a box safety, or a strong safety, or whatever you want to call it, in the first round, unless he’s going to be a game-changer. Edmunds was not that. Therefore, it was a bad first-round pick.
Edmunds plays a devalued position. He has been available to every team in the past two years and will play for a $2 million base salary in Philadelphia after returning to the Steelers last season for a meager $2.5 million. That tells you all you need to know. If you’re Budda Baker, you’re going to get a $59 million contract. If you’re Edmunds, you’re going to get $57 million less than that. It’s really that simple.
It’s kind of like running back — if a team drafts one in the first round, he better be a high-impact player.
Plus, consider some of the players who went within 10 picks after Edmunds. Lamar Jackson and Nick Chubb were two, but for the Steelers’ purposes, they needed an inside linebacker to replace Ryan Shazier, and Shaquille Leonard, taken eight picks later by the Colts, won Defensive Rookie of the Year and became a perennial All-Pro.
On the other hand, the Edmunds story isn’t finished. Maybe the Eagles bring out the playmaker in him. If they do, the whole story gets reversed: The Steelers will look bad for not making him a richer offer — and for not developing him properly — but better for drafting him in the first place.
